American Tower and operator Verizon signed a long-term lease agreement that will bolster the latter’s on-going 5G network deployments across the US by giving it access to additional towers as it attempts to close the coverage gap on T-Mobile US.

The financial terms and length of the new tower agreement weren’t disclosed.

A representative for Verizon stated to Mobile World Live (MWL) the previous contract between the two companies expired in December and that they had been negotiating up until 30 August when the new agreement was struck.

Steve Vondran, president of the US division for American Tower, stated the new agreement was an extension of the company’s decades-long strategic partnership with Verizon.

In a July research note, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett wrote that Verizon and AT&T’s most recent earnings results were supportive of tower leasing prospects for companies such as American Tower, “in that investing to catch-up with T-Mobile is one of the most viable paths they may have to improve their results.”

American Tower, which has 43,000 wireless towers across the US, Crown Castle and SBA Communications, respectively, are the three biggest cell tower operators in the US, according to website Wireless Estimator.