This afternoon, one of our clients who had negotiated an agreement with T-Mobile for lease of their land received the following response from T-Mobile as to why their lease was not signed:
“As I mentioned during our conversation, due to the Economic Situation, T-Mobile is not moving forward at this time, with any leases, since no towers are going to be built. We would like to keep this site as a possibility for future reference, since it is a future interest for T-Mobile.”
Our client was understandably angry because this particular lease reimbursed him for legal fees that he had already expended. So T-Mobile’s failure to sign the lease meant that he wasn’t going to be reimbursed even though he had done everything they had asked of him and had signed the lease.
It appears from this message that T-Mobile tower construction nationwide is on hold. We have heard a rumor that capital expenditures from T-Mobile in some markets have been dropped 90%. We suspect that they are still continuing with construction on some towers but that a budget hold has been placed in effect and a good number of towers are not being constructed at this time. In our experience, these setbacks are typically an indicator of one of the following:
1. Poor financial performance: T-Mobile has not been having a banner year.
2. Possible merger: Carriers typically stop construction prior to announcing a merger.
3. Need to reallocate budget for 3G.
I believe this is probably indicative of the 1st scenario. If you are in a similar situation, there isn’t much you can do other than wait. Whatever you do, there is no cause to get angry towards T-Mobile.
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Just curious if you know whether or not T-mobile is stil moving forward with signing new leases and going through the permit/zoning process on schedule or if your announcement means that all plans are expected to remain on hold until further notice?
We just had 9 leases signed in July, 2011, so I don't think this article is relevant any longer.
We just last week heard an unsubstantiated rumor that T-Mobile is moving forward on some leases, but you are the first person that has actually indicated to us that T-Mobile has signed a lease since the article was written. It is possible that they are signing leases that they had negotiated previously but not actually building the sites at this time. An associate who used to work for T-Mobile in Florida told us today that T-Mobile let go most of their vendors and he isn't aware of anything that is in construction. I don't know if this is representative of just Florida or for the entire nation. Where are your leases?
We do know that some of our clients have been approached in the last week for modifications to their exisitng leases with T-Mobile to add antennas for UMTS.