Many cell phone tower rent rates have recently changed now that AT&T and Verizon have created deals with several major cellphone tower companies. These new deals may have increased the amount of rent that cell phone tower companies owe to property owners.

The consolidation of cell phone tower operators has led to many of these leases being transferred from wireless carriers, like AT&T and Verizon, to cell phone tower operators. This may affect the cell phone tower rent rate established in the initial agreement.

Recent deals between Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile and cell phone tower companies like Tillman Infrastructure and American Tower have allowed them to partner in this industry. These partnerships have caused a large number of cell tower leases to be transferred to different owners, resulting in possible lease violations.

Class action investigators are currently working to determine if property owners are owed more money due to lease agreement violations. Cell phone tower leases often include provisions which would require tenants to make supplemental payments to the property owner.

However, a recent review has shown that tenants are often in breach of these provisions. This means wireless carriers and cell phone tower companies may owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in cell phone tower rent payments.

Overview of Cell Phone Tower Rent Rates

Cell phone tower rent rates vary between locations. For example, in a rural area like Tennessee, a site may reap $400 per month for a paging company, but in a New England city, a PCS carrier cell tower may reap $3,900 per month.

Cell phone tower rent rates are based on a number of factors including construction cost, strategic location, return of investment requirement, tenant load capacity, nearby competition, subscriber competition and other property owner lease fees.

In addition, pre-construction costs like zoning and FCC expenses also play a role in the overall cell phone tower rent rates. The structure of the cell phone tower is also taken into account including the size and transmission lines as well as the overall ground space.

While each of the factors mentioned above plays into cell phone tower rent rates, location of the property is primarily what determines the value and leverage property owners have.

This is because the number of tenants that will use the same site and the population determines how useful the cell phone tower will be for the wireless carrier and cell phone tower company.

However, even if the property owner has valuable real estate for these companies, negotiating cell phone tower rent rates can be difficult and a confusing process.

Property owners are encouraged to contact an attorney to help during this process and to be wary of overtly enthusiastic company representatives pushing towards a specific rate.

Considering that two-thirds of the total population of the United States use smartphones, the need for these cell phone towers is vital with providers like Verizon and AT&T utilizing these towers to provide uninterrupted coverage.

According to Statisticsbrain.com, there are almost 215,000 cell phone towers in the United States with each company having to pay different cell phone tower rent rates. Property owners are owed money for these cell phone tower leases if their contracts were violated and may benefit from consulting a cell phone tower lease lawyer.