FCC Orders Landowner to Remove Abandoned Tower

In a surprise ruling, the FCC determined that a landowner was responsible for removing a 375’ guyed tower on their property after the broadcaster that built it (and subsequent broadcast owners) failed to do so. Because the tower exceeds 200’, it is required to be lit for aircraft safety. However, the tower lights apparently had […]

AT&T Terminated 630 Cell Sites in 2019

AT&T (via BlackDot), is contacting tower owners and landowners and trying to convince them to renegotiate their leases.  If you have read our previous content- there isn’t much new to this renegotiation story except for the following letter that they provided to one of our clients. The highlighted part is the interesting part- AT&T claims […]

Our Wireless Forecasts For 2020

As we do every year around this time, we provide our predictions for what we expect to happen in the upcoming year. Some of our predictions are safe and some are not. Some end up being correct and some aren’t. 1. 5G Continues to Underwhelm Consumers (For Now) . Wireless service providers launched their commercial […]

Lendlease’s New Renegotiation Efforts on Sprint Rooftop Sites

If you have followed our musings over the years, you know that we don’t like the lease renegotiation industry.  In the past we have observed some companies (not Lendlease, Tower Alliance, or Softbank/Sprint) use high-pressure tactics, sometimes outright misrepresentations, and downright aggressive salespeople to convince landowners to agree to terms that are not advantageous to […]

Desperate to Get Back at the Tower Companies: The Verizon, AT&T, and Tillman Infrastructure JV

Yesterday, in a surprise press release by Verizon, Verizon indicated that it had formed a joint venture with AT&T and Tillman Infrastructure to develop “hundreds” of communication towers with “the potential for significantly more new site locations in the future”.  Tillman Infrastructure is relatively new to the US- but owns a few thousand towers in […]

Et Tu, Brute? Verizon Appears to Have Hired Accenture to Renegotiate Cell Tower Leases Using Same Tired Threats of Relocation

A municipal client, who has multiple public safety towers upon which Verizon is colocated, received a call and letter from a Verizon representative asking for reduced lease rate terms and escalation. The letter is on Verizon letterhead and does not make clear the relationship between Accenture and Verizon but refers to the Accenture employee or […]