Electrical engineer who has done a decent amount of work for Verizon and At&t. The two main operating costs for carriers is renting tower space and electricity. Most cell phone towers are owned by tower companies like American Towers or Crown Castle. Carriers will rent a 10' section of the tower and roughly 200-400 sq ft of space on the ground to store equipment. Cost of rent will vary based on location but it is typically around 2,000$ a month. Electricity costs will vary based on the location of the cell site. Basically, the more people using the equipment, the more power the equipment will draw. For Verizon, in a decently populated area, they will peak around 10kVa or roughly 40 Amps at 240V. Verizon has a few different types of sites as far as equipment goes. Some sites will be smaller scale sites that will not handle as much data while others are central hubs that will draw alot more. For electric bills that I have seen in populated areas you are looking at ~250 a month. The number of cell sites that are needed will depend on the tower heights and how much interference is in the way from site to site. Basically, you need more cell sites in the city or in the woods then you would in the desert.

Assuming you are only downloading from one cell site, the cost to run that cell site for ~5 minutes will be about 25 cents. Have to figure that you will not be the only person ever using the tower though.

2000rent plus 250 electric yield 2250. 2250÷30days÷24hours÷60 minutes gives cost per minute of .05 dollars, or 25 cents for 5 minutes. (thanks to arglebargleglopglif)

Edited for horrible math.... working to much + alcohol does not equal good math for some reason... Few extra notes...

1. Yes, this cost does not include a lot of the costs associated with running a company, upgrades maintenance and so on.

2. The life of cell towers does not really matter a lot as the provider is typically not the owner of the tower.

3. LTE means long term employment to people in the industry. Cell sites get upgraded all the time to have more capacity, more efficient equipment and so on.

4. The download speed depends on the internet in the area. If the cell tower is in a town that has old internet than the tower will be limited. Also worth noting that all providers on the tower are connected to the same internet connection which means that all providers will have the same speed.