Cell Tower and Wireless Telecommunications Blog

Since 2004, Steel in the Air has served over 3,000 clients, reviewed over 10,000 cellular leases and tracked over 2,000 lease buyout offers. We represent private landowners, corporate property owners and public entities in lease negotiations against wireless carriers and tower companies. We also consult on cell site and cell tower valuation and brokerage. Our cell tower and cell site database has grown to encompass over 285,000 cell site locations nationwide.

Ken Schmidt

Key Takeaways from American Tower (AMT) Q4 2015 Earnings Call

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American Tower Corporation (AMT) provided its 4th Quarter 2015 earnings call this past week.  In reviewing the transcript, here are our takeaways:

1. American Tower now has upwards of 140,000 towers worldwide – which represents a sizable increase in India of 42,000 towers over 2015 and the 11,500 sites from Verizon this past year.  AMT expects to be at 145,000 sites by the end of the year, which suggests that there aren’t any sizable acquisitions out there for 2016.

2. American Tower built approximately 3,000 towers and 50 new indoor DAS networks in 2015 (almost all of them outside the US). [Read more…] about Key Takeaways from American Tower (AMT) Q4 2015 Earnings Call

American Tower Lease Extensions – DELAYED!

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A good portion of our business comes from landowners who have received offers to extend their leases from the large tower companies like Crown Castle or American Tower.   We evaluate the proposals and recommend what the tower lease is actually worth to our clients.   [Read more…] about American Tower Lease Extensions – DELAYED!

Tristar Investors Lawsuit Against American Tower Corporation

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On Feb 16,  2012, Tristar Investors sued American Tower Corporation alleging that American Tower had violated the Lanham Act, unfairly competed, disparaged Tristar’s business, tortuously interfered with an existing contract and with prospective business relations, and lastly had breached a contract.   The suit was filed in Federal Court in Dallas.  The suit was quickly posted on the internet.  Tristar alleges in a lengthy complaint full of hyperbole that American Tower has prevented Tristar from purchasing assets that American Tower owns or subleases by using misrepresentation and unfair practices. [Read more…] about Tristar Investors Lawsuit Against American Tower Corporation

Biggest Issues for Small Cells: Leases and Backhaul

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Small Cell Installation on Rest Station
Small Cell Installation on Rest Station

Alcatel-Lucent has created a database of 600,000 potential small cell sites.  They have coordinated with building owners, tower companies, cable companies, outdoor advertising providers, systems integrators, and managed services providers to list locations where the landowner, building owner, or tower owner are interested in leasing space for small cells and where there is fiber optic service in place already.   These locations would include towers, billboards, DAS facilities, rooftops, and other properties or structures that would accommodate small cells.  [Read more…] about Biggest Issues for Small Cells: Leases and Backhaul

Consent Requests for Fiber Optic Cable

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Cell tower fiber optic easement
Example of unacceptable repairs by the tower owner after installing fiber optic cable

Building owners and tower ground leaseholders nationwide are being contacted on a regular basis by the wireless carriers and tower companies who occupy their property to grant access rights for fiber optic cable. As data demands increase dramatically, there is a need to improve the data throughput from the individual cell sites. The solution is to lay fiber optic cable, which is faster than traditional copper wire, less expensive, and more efficient than T-1 or DS3 lines. [Read more…] about Consent Requests for Fiber Optic Cable

Zayo Group and Md7 Proposes Rent Reductions to $0/mo.

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In a bold effort, MD7 on behalf of Zayo Group sent a letter to a client of ours asking the client to reduce the rent for the fiber access lease on their rooftop to $0/mo.   Their argument (a weak one) is that they are more akin to a utility and should be charged like one.   Since you don’t charge the power company to come on your property, why would you charge Zayo? [Read more…] about Zayo Group and Md7 Proposes Rent Reductions to $0/mo.

Afraid of Rocking the Boat: When to Build Your Own Tower

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Rocking the Boat.

A gentleman called us two days ago. He had been approached by a local tower company to build a cell tower on his property. We had an initial discussion, and he seemed intrigued by our services. The initial offer from the tower company was pretty decent, better than an initial offer should have been for this area. I suggested this to him and also suggested that typically when a tower company makes an offer like this, it is because the property is unique. This gentleman owned a significant amount of acres along a difficult-to-cover corridor. The tower company had no other choice but to use his property. [Read more…] about Afraid of Rocking the Boat: When to Build Your Own Tower

Individual Masquerading as Steel in the Air Employee

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A woman from Virginia contacted us today and indicated that she had met a man who was passing himself off as an Italian business man who works for Steel in the Air, Inc.   He referred her to our website and used an email address that contained the words “italianmanofsteel”.   He indicated that he had to leave for a business trip to Malaysia shortly after meeting her and 3 days later called and asked her to send money.

She wisely called us and we indicated to her that it was a scam.   If you have been contacted by anyone working for Steel in the Air that asks you to send money, don’t send it.   We would never ask you to send money unless you have a written contract with us for services.

Best Practices Guide for Lease Buyout/Optimization Companies

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Author’s Note: The following article is written tongue in cheek- I was just feeling a little rambunctious today about the myriad of “strategies” that we come across every day that lease buyout companies, tower companies, lease optimization firms, and wireless carriers use to try to convince landowners to do something that is not in their best interest. Hopefully, this will help at least one landowner realize that they aren’t alone and that they don’t have to make hurried and rash decisions.  Please realize that no company does all of these things and not all salespeople at these companies do them.  [Read more…] about Best Practices Guide for Lease Buyout/Optimization Companies

When Stealthy Pine Trees Are Poorly Designed

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Stealth Pine Tree Tower
Worst Example of Stealth Tree I have Ever Seen

9/23/15 Update: First of all, we’d like to mention that the term “Stealth” is a registered trademark of Stealth Towers. “Stealthy” can be used as an adjective to describe concealed towers, which is the non-trademarked way to refer to any towers that are designed to blend into the environment.  Some concealed towers are designed to look like trees; others are meant to look like flagpoles or church steeples.  As is typical for just about anything, some concealed towers are designed poorly while others are designed so well that it’s very difficult to spot them or notice that they are “fakes”.

For examples of poorly designed concealed towers, take a look at this link: https://www.pinterest.com/ken6148/fake-tree-cell-towers-bad/

For examples of well designed “stealthy” towers, see: https://www.pinterest.com/ken6148/fake-tree-cell-towers-good/

[Read more…] about When Stealthy Pine Trees Are Poorly Designed