Company: MTZ
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000015615-25-000021
Chunk: 455

Company: MASTEC INC
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 455
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icro cells, fiber network expansion by major carriers in support of 5G and, according to IBIS World’s October 2024 publication, higher demand for retrofits and upgrades of current generation towers to transition towers to 5G, will lead to growing demand for 5G telecommunications infrastructure over multiple years.  Additionally, there are several initiatives designed to drive development of telecommunications and 5G infrastructure in rural areas.

We believe that there will be significant fiber network expansion resulting from the combination of carrier spend and government programs that are expected to incentivize private investment in telecommunications infrastructure.  Additionally, recently there have been announcements of significant investments being made by companies in data centers for artificial intelligence which, in turn, leads to opportunities to support data center connectivity with new facilities moving farther from traditional locations.  According to UBS’s June 2024 U.S. Cable and Telecom Services report, it is believed that the United States will see record levels of fiber-to-the home deployment in 2025 and 2026.  The IIJA provides approximately $65 billion of funding to improve and expand the nation’s broadband infrastructure and to make broadband more affordable for low-income Americans, including the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (“BEAD”) Program.  BEAD will provide over $42 billion to expand high-speed internet access by funding planning, infrastructure deployment and adoption programs, with priority for unserved and underserved areas.  Other government initiatives include the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, which has committed to provide up to $20 billion in funding over ten years to build and connect high-speed broadband in rural homes and small businesses.  Carriers are also investing in telecommunications infrastructure to expand their fiber footprint across the nation.  One such example is the AT&T and BlackRock Alternatives private equity fiber partnership, Gigapower LLC (“Gigapower”), which will operate a commercial fiber-optic platform in the Unites States.  While still in the early process of scaling, carriers continue to stress the importance of these builds and are experiencing momentum in fiber performance in Gigapower geographies.  Based on this performance, AT&T and BlackRock plan to grow and are looking for opportunities to expand Gigapower’s network beyond the initial 1.5 million customer locations announced in 2022, including growth in both existing and new geographies.

The U.S. market for Smart City initiatives, in which cities use IoT technologies, artificial intelligence and cloud storage to collect and use insights gained from data to manage city assets, resources and services more efficiently