Welcome to Steel in the Air, your trusted source for cellular lease negotiations, lease valuations, and lease buyouts. We dedicate this website to the landowners we serve, and have done our very best to make it a reputable public resource for the telecom industry – in specific landowners, building owners and local governments.
During the five-year period from 1996-2001, the United States showed its sharpest increase in cell tower growth (30K cell sites in 1996 surged to 127K in 2001). The Telecom Act of 1996 resulted in an era that was remarkably similar to the Wild West – wireless carriers and cell tower companies embarked upon an aggressive nationwide race to claim as many cell site locations as they could. (The major dissimilarity between the Wild West and the Telecom Era was that during the latter period, the land acquired was not meant to be simply a means of sustenance, but in every way was meant for profit). The demand for cell towers was high and the suppliers (the tower companies) struggled to keep up. For a while, chaos ensued, along with a lot of shady marketing and deceptive business practices. In an effort to stay ahead of the game, tower companies would imply that they had actually built towers on cell site locations before they were, in fact, constructed.
Steel in the Air is a company that follows a code of ethics – because we know that it is the most efficient and lucrative way to practice in any kind of industry.
Steel in the Air partners with Steel Tree Partners, a cell tower brokerage firm specializing in the valuation of cell towers for investors, appraisers and portfolio managers. If you own your own cell tower and would like help with valuation, please let us know.
Steel in the Air is affiliated with CityScape, a company dedicated to strategically serving municipal governments in all aspects of cellular lease negotiations and wireless communications infrastructure deployment plans. We advise and educate our clients on industry dynamics, including FCC regulations, and how to best position themselves in negotiations with wireless carriers and cell tower companies.
In February 2010, Steel in the Air formed a joint venture with SiteXCell, an Australian cell tower and cell site consulting firm who shares our mission of helping property owners in negotiations against wireless carriers, tower companies and lease buyout companies.
Beyond those partners listed above, we have access to specialists in broadcast towers, microwave networks, fiber optic networks, and tower construction that we regularly rely upon when a client has a matter outside of our core area of expertise.