Real estate investment trust (REIT) American Tower (NYSE: AMT) has a unique focus as it supports an increasingly mobile world. That's a great story when you think about the long-term future. However, investors also need to understand that there's a near-term obstacle to overcome. Here's why the next year probably won't be all that exciting for American Tower shareholders.

Before discussing the negatives, you should know the positives. American Tower owns an enormous global portfolio of cellular towers and it leases space on them to telecommunications providers. These are vital infrastructure assets that make using mobile phones possible for billions of people around the world. On top of that, the REIT has layered a portfolio of data centers, which also supports all of the mobile computing taking place on smartphones. It's a fairly strong combination of assets.

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Source Fool.com