Two of the largest cell phone companies have joined forces to build new cell phone towers in order to get more coverage to customers. This new partnership may mean cell tower site rental rates could increase for those who already have leases with cell tower companies.

It was announced recently that AT&T and Verizon have teamed up with Tillman Infrastructure to build hundreds of new cell phone towers all over the United States.

Tillman Infrastructure is a privately owned company that already owns a multitude of towers and continues to build them for use by cell phone providers. This partnership with AT&T and Verizon means many different things, and might be something that property owners should take note of regarding cell tower site rental rates.

Most current cell phone towers are built on land that is leased from a property owner. In essence, a company like Tillman or a cell phone provider like Verizon determines it needs to build a new cell phone tower to provide coverage to its customers. It then seeks out a place in which to build a tower.

Often, these places are owned by private individuals or commercial entities. If a company like Tillman or a provider like Verizon or AT&T build a tower on privately owned land, a lease is usually drawn up.

Tillman, Verizon or other owners of cell towers then pay yearly or monthly cell tower site rental rates to the property owners. On average, these cell tower site rental rates are $45,000 per year.

Some estimates place the number of cell towers in the United States alone at over 200,000.

The partnership between AT&T, Verizon and Tillman Infrastructure may not seem like a bad thing. However, for property owners who receive cell tower site rental rates from cell tower owners, this deal might mean big changes for them.

Because of this new deal for cell towers, many current leases have already changed hands or will do so in the near future. If this happens, the applicable cell tower site rental rates may increase, and property owners may not be getting all the rent they are owed from the new leaseholders.

It is possible that the tenant, whether it is AT&T, Verizon, Tillman Infrastructure or another company, could be in breach of the lease and owe the property owner money.

Some of these leases that identify cell tower site rental rates have clauses that provide for supplemental payments to be made to the property owner for certain circumstances. If this is the case, there have been times that tenants, including large cell phone companies and cell tower owners, have owed property owners hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Verizon and AT&T claim that this new partnership will cut down on costs and ultimately help the consumer. They have said that there is a need to reduce operating costs and that there should be an alternative to the traditional model of leasing towers.

However, property owners who file cell tower site rental lawsuits may be able to recover attorneys fees or damages that were lost due to possible breach of contract.