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As has been the case for much of 2015, Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) and T-Mobile US (NYSE:TMUS) led the way in terms of capital expenditures for wireless network gear in the third quarter, with AT&T Mobility (NYSE: T) and Sprint (NYSE: S) appearing to be hanging back in terms of major capex spending. However, Sprint is just beginning its network densification efforts and some tower companies do expect AT&T to begin ramping up spending next year.
Verizon Communications CFO Fran Shammo noted last month on the carrier's third-quarter earnings conference call that capital expenditures were $4.4 billion in the quarter and $12.5 billion year-to-date. He said the company expects capital expenditures for 2015 to be within its stated range of $17.5 billion to $18 billion. Verizon has continued to deploy small cells, distributed antenna systems (DAS) and other in-building solutions to add capacity to its network, especially in urban markets, as LTE data traffic jumped 75 percent from a year ago.
"Our densification program is progressing well and it is achieving the capacity gains that we expected on the spectrum that is in service," Shammo said, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. "For example in Chicago, we are on our plan for small cell deployments covering key locations with distributed antenna systems and expanding our in-building coverage."
T-Mobile CFO Braxton Carter said on his company's earnings call that the company is maintaining its cash capex guidance for 2015 of $4.4 billion to $4.7 billion. He noted that T-Mobile has "already rolled out the vast majority of the spectrum that we owned all within the CapEx parameters that we disclosed and reiterated our guidance for the third time. Because essentially the vast majority is overlaying the existing network."
According to a Seeking Alpha transcript, he noted that T-Mobile is expanding into new geographies with its 700 MHz A Block spectrum but that is...