Reasons Why a Cell Phone Company Is Interested in Leasing Your Property

Coverage vs. Capacity.

One of the basic tenets to the art of negotiation is to understand what motivates the other party to take part in the transaction or contract. In other words, if you understand what motivates the other party, then you may have an advantage in negotiating terms and conditions in your favor. If you’ve recently been approached by a cell phone carrier interested in leasing a portion of your property, it is important to to understand exactly why this carrier is selecting your property in particular. To be sure, cell phone towers are quite expensive to construct or maintain (initial investment of approximately $500,000), so if a cell phone carrier is serious about building a tower on your property, it is most definitely because they must fill a current or specific need based on certain business objectives.

Based on our many years of cell site industry experience, we understand that carriers contact landowners for two reasons:

• To increase coverage by filling gaps in coverage that are causing dropped calls or dead zones.
• To increase capacity in an existing service area in order to meet growing customer demand for phone and data services

By better understanding a cell phone carrier’s motivation behind pursuing a cell tower on your property (over other possible sites), you will be in a better position during lease term negotiations.

Let’s face it; the number of calls a cell site can handle is finite. Sometimes, there is just too much “traffic” from cell phone and data usage through a particular cell tower site. For example, have you experienced difficulty making a cell phone call from a crowded stadium or convention hall full of people?

In these instances, carriers need to offload traffic to another site. A classic example of this in recent years is AT&T’s increase capacity demand to handle the prolific use of the iPhone, especially in larger, densely populated areas. Indeed, most parts of the United States has “coverage,“ as they claim, but the huge popularity of the iPhone prompted more traffic in many spots than AT&T’s existing cell sites can handle.

Knowledge is Power: We Can Help Put The Odds in Your Favor

At Cell Tower Attorney, we’ll help you understand precisely what the perceived value of your property is to the cell carrier and how important it is in their business growth strategy. We’ll help determine which of the two reasons listed above -- capacity or quality -- the carrier is attempting to address so that we can better leverage your position in the lease negotiation. The perceived value of your property for the carrier’s proposed use will dictate just how aggressive we can be when setting the lease terms and drafting specific contract language. It may also play a vital part in how quickly the contract can be negotiated and executed.

In addition, because we have years of experience in representing landowners in contract negotiations with cell phone carriers, we can assist you in understanding what the pertinent terms and conditions are in the lease and how to best protect you and your property while maximizing the potential revenue stream.

It is important to remember that it is your property that is unique to the carriers, not you: The carrier has no vested interest in guaranteeing your appropriate compensation or convenience.

Let us make sure you are protected. Contact Cell Tower Attorney today to learn more about how we can help you if a cell phone carrier has approached you.

Please note, if you have not been contacted, we really cannot help market your property in any way.