New York, October 21, 2013 -- Moody's Investors Service said AT&T Inc.'s (A3 stable) announcement today that it has reached a $4.85 billion deal to sell the rights to sublease and operate 9,100 of its towers to Crown Castle International Corp. (Ba2 stable) for an average term of 28 years. Crown Castle will also acquire 600 towers from AT&T at close and will have the option to purchase the subleased towers at the end of the lease terms. AT&T will lease tower space from Crown Castle for a minimum of 10 years and pay rent of $1,900 per month per site, increasing 2% per year with renewal options up to a total of 50 years. Moody's views the transaction as mildly credit negative as it will create a long term operating lease liability, which Moody's considers debt for analytical purposes. Although AT&T's sale of its towers will reduce its operational flexibility and increase cash operating costs, the sale proceeds represent an attractive valuation of over 20x annual tower rent expense.

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