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Black Dot Wireless: How To Respond to Requests to Renegotiate your Cell Tower Lease

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Negotiating New Cell Tower Leases

Black Dot Wireless

Black Dot is known in the industry as a lease optimization company. It acts as a third-party, working on behalf of wireless carriers (the Lessee), to negotiate cellular leases with landownersbuilding owners and public entities (the Lessor). Historically, Black Dot has worked for Alltel, AT&TSprintT-Mobile, and US Cellular

Like most lease optimization companies, they frequently suggest that if you fail to negotiate, that the carrier will consider all their options, including termination of the lease.

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    Why is Black Dot Contacting Me?

    Black Dot acts as an agent for the wireless carriers. Their “business” is convincing landowners to renegotiate their leases—in most cases, for the worse. They may be contacting you because the carrier wants to improve their lease. Some reasons that they contact landowners include: 

    1. Your lease has less than 5 years remaining, and the carrier wants to extend it.
    2. They want to add a Right of First Refusal Clause to your lease.
    3. They want to alter the Permitted Use language in your lease to reduce any chance you might have of asking for more rent.
    4. They want you to reduce the rent or escalation in the lease.
    5. They want you to “abate” your rent at some point in the future.
    6. They want to buyout the lease.

    In some cases, Black Dot will offer a nominal increase in the lease rate in exchange for an extension of the lease duration. However, we caution all landowners who are approached by Black Dot on behalf of AT&T to be wary of any proposed changes. These proposals (even the ones that increase the lease rate) are almost always attempts to encourage the landowner to sign an undervalued lease extension or to agree to terms that could materially reduce the value of the site.

    What Motivates Black Dot Wireless?

    Black Dot representatives receive commission based on the amount of rent that they reduce and are paid bonuses when Lessors accept amendments to their lease. In fact, Black Dot agents have built constraints into the online database they use to value leases, specifically to allot them themselves the highest fees possible for any given transaction.

    Black Dot Wireless agents are like skilled politicians — they provide scripts to your questions and when unable to answer off script, they either misdirect the question or fail to answer. Unless you understand Black Dot Wireless’s end game, you are at a severe disadvantage in the negotiations.

    “Black Dot Wireless help-wanted ads suggest that their salesmen can earn over $200,000 annually by convincing landowners to agree to reduce their cell site lease rates.”

    How Black Dot Benefits From Mergers And Acquisitions

    Black Dot takes advantage of wireless telecom industry dynamics, such as mergers and acquisitions, to persuade property owners to accept rent reductions or convincing landowners that cell towers will become obsolete due to satellites. They do this by using scare tactics, like telling property owners that their lease is likely to be terminated unless they agree to rental reductions. While it’s correct that mergers and acquisitions will result in some cell tower redundancies and consolidation of cell sites, the percentage of sites affected is actually quite low. In the majority of cases, property owners’ cellular leases are perfectly secure as is.

    We have helped over hundreds of clients, specifically with Black Dot Wireless negotiations. 

    If you found this page in error and are looking for Black Dot Wireless’ website, please go to www.BlackDotwireless.com.

    What to Do if You Have Been Contacted by Black Dot Wireless

    1. Don’t be scared into making a rash decision. Their agents are trained to pressure you into making a quick decision by suggesting that there are drop-dead dates. In our 20+ years of helping landowners, less than 1% of drop-dead dates given to our clients are truly drop-dead dates. You have time to make the right decision. 
    2. Contact us. In most cases, we do a quick, no-cost review and can tell you whether there is any reason to be concerned. If there is no risk, we will tell you that without charging you a dime. If there is a risk, we will provide a reasonable quote for services and help you understand what your options are. 

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    We help landowners make wise decisions regarding cell tower leases daily.  Don't make a decision blindly that you will regret for decades.

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