Former AT&T Wireless Site Leases
I'm curious. What will happen to the leases for AT&T (or Cingular) Wireless sites where there is a close overlap between the two? For instance, near my house, there is a Cingular Wireless site mounted on a old, unused smokestack, and across the street is a similar site that is a AT&T Wireless Site. I am sure once the merger is complete, they will want to eliminate one of the two sites, and perhaps deploy the equipment to another area to build a new site. Does anyone have any insight into this? I was thinking that these leases must be a major expense, and that the ability to eliminate redundant sites would be a huge savings for the new company. It would also give them expanded coverage when the sites are re-deployed. Just a thought.
posted by pete at 1:56:00 PM
2 Comments:
Pete,
My company consults for landowners who have been approached by AT&T post merger to renegotiate their cell tower ground leases. AT&T/Cingular reps have told them that renegotiating puts them into a much better position- that AT&T/Cingular will evaluate the leases on a few factors-
1- Coverage/Capacity
2- Length of Lease
3- Cost of Lease
4- Proximity of Nearest Tower
The quick and dirty answer is that coverage/capacity will rule this decision. Unless there is a significant difference in cost, the site that provides better coverage will take precendence.
AT&T/Cingular has brought in a third party vendor to evaluate the overlap- so the termination of leases really has not occured yet. And in some areas- it is my understanding that AT&T and Cingular will keep both sets of antennas operating.
A related question is what happens to Nextel and Sprint leases- although due to their divergent technologies, termination of duplicative leases will occur to a lesser extent in the near term.
As for reuse of equipment- it will depend on age.
Thanks,
Ken Schmidt
www.steelintheair.com
What some "consultants" have failed to remember, the agreement between the FCC and AT&T Wireless/Cingular, is that where the two have licenses in the same area, one set of licenses have got to be divested. There will still be spaces out there needed. In many cases, the new licensee will end up purchasing the system in its entirety, including tower leases. Ground lease holders will probably be very safe, as they are not going to want to take the towers down, and there are lots of companys like Frosty Towers, (www.frostytowers.com) Vangard Wireless (www.vangardwireless.com) and other smaller scrappier tower companies that are willing to buy those towers. Rooftop and chimney owners may be more apt to lose out. They all need to beware of people trying to "help"!
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