subject: Cell Phone Tower Lease Changes [print this page] In the last couple of decades we have seen a huge explosion in the cellular phone industry, and this also means an explosion in the number of cell phone lease agreements that are entered into between the companies and the people who own the land that is needed to build towers on. These towers are the whole foundation of the industry, and their networks would crumble without them. It seems that today, changes in the technology they use means that some companies are allegedly trying to use that as a means of renegotiating contracts with land owners to benefit them more by cutting the amount of rent that they pay to those land owners.
It seems that many carriers are claiming that the towers are no longer needed, and they try to convince land owners that they need to either agree to lower rental rates on their lease or the cellular phone company will take the tower on their property down. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the name of the game was to build towers as quickly as possible and as many of them possible. A number of properties offered areas for coverage so the cellular tower companies would lease a persons land to put those towers up.
In the past, higher cell tower sites were needed to support as many users as possible. Now however, the operations are more and more relying on sites that are closer to the ground, thanks to more appropriate bandwidths. Towers today being built are now built on the multiple location stance as opposed to the best location principle. It is true that cellular networks no longer need some of the towers that are the focus of some lease agreements because the technology has changed.
However, a contract is a contract and a property owner is not legally bound to agreeing to any of these claims. Even though cellular networks are no longer attracted to the same types of spots, They are still very much able to be used. Even though the changes are benefitting the consumers who use the cell phones, they are causing plenty of grief and frustrations for those who are in a cell tower lease with one of those companies. There really is no such thing as an ideal location anymore, and new property owners are seeing lease rates that are much lower than what current leaseholders are getting. After 25 years of cellular business, these towers are still needed and land owners are still entering into lease agreements.
