Cell Site Lease Terminations


Many landowners are starting to receive "Pre-termination" letters from Black Dot Wireless on behalf of Cingular. The basic framework of the letters goes like this:

  • Your site has been identified as one slated for termination.
  • We would like to stop paying any rent we owe you for a two year period.
  • In return we will market your site to other wireless carriers and other potential tenants like WiMAX providers.
  • If we are successful in finding a new tenant, we will pay you the current rent plus 10%.
  • If we are unsuccessful, then at the end of two years, the lease will terminate and we have no further obligations, including those in the lease.

Black Dot makes the offer sound quite attractive- that while you are losing the Cingular lease rate, they can make a bad situation good with the promise of 100's of thousands of dollars of future revenue. Blackdot provides countless articles showing that WiMAX is going to replace cell towers and that it will be good for the tower business, the implication being that you stand a good chance of leasing your rooftop space or land to another tenant.

What they don't tell you is much more important.

1. That if you sign the amendment as provided, that if they are unsuccessful in marketing your site you will now be responsible for removing the tower or the equipment/shelter they leave behind that has no value. This could run upwards of $50,000 to do. Ask them if they will agree to remove their equipment at the end of the 2 year period and see what they say.

2. That if they do find another tenant- that there is nothing to stop them from charging double what you are currently getting and then paying you a mere 10% increase.

3. That if you have a good property or tower site, that another tenant will find you anyway with or without their help. Ask yourself why Black Dot can find you a tenant when for 15 years, no one else has approached you to lease space. Recognize that when we go out to find new cell site locations, the first thing we do is identify existing cell sites- because we know that the owner is already knowledgeable about the deal and interested in cell site money.

You may ask why we put this information directly on our web page instead of getting a consulting fee to assist you. Simple- we don't have the heart to charge you money to tell you that you are in fact losing your lease revenue and that on top of that Cingular is trying to stick you with the additional cost of removing their equipment. Furthermore, we don't agree with what Cingular is doing.

And we hope that should you have further issues with your cell site leases in the future, that you will think of using our services.

Please feel free to drop us a line if you found this article helpful- we love to hear from our site's visitors. Just mention in the notes that you received a cell site lease termination letter.

CINGULAR AND BLACKDOT WIRELESS ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OWNED BY CINGULAR AND BLACKDOT WIRELESS, LLC, RESPECTIVELY. STEEL IN THE AIR IS NOT AFFILIATED IN ANY WAY WITH BLACKDOT WIRELESS OR CINGULAR. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR BLACKDOT WIRELESS's WEBPAGE- PLEASE GO TO www.blackdotwireless.com.