Edge computing is not the only newer space for Crown Castle. The company known best as a cell tower owner is leveraging a series of acquisitions capped by its purchase of Lightower to become a service provider to the enterprise market. (See Tower Companies Brace for an Edge Computing Bonanza.)

This summer, Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE: CCI) announced its expansion plans in the Los Angeles market, with a multi-million investment in a region in which it already has 5,674 route miles of fiber connected to 1,921 buildings as well as three of its own data centers and connectivity to many more. All of this is part of a strategy to expand the company's definition of "shared infrastructure" to include the full range of fiber optic services -- lit and unlit -- in addition to sharing towers, small cells and distributed antenna system (DAS) facilities among wireless operators.