Due to recent partnerships between cell tower companies and wireless carriers, property owners who lease their property for cell tower use could be owed more rent money based on their negotiated cell phone tower rental rate.

Leasing private property for cell phone tower usage can be a lucrative business opportunity for private property owners. With a high demand for cell phone towers, private property owners often rent their land to cellular providers for the purpose of building and operating cell phone towers. This is often a stable investment due to the continued need for cellular data.

Two-thirds of U.S. consumers use a smartphone which requires cellular data. To keep up with the growing demand cellular providers use cell phone towers across the country to provide uninterrupted coverage.

Cellular towers are often placed on private property that is rented from a property owner. There are around 215,000 cell phone towers in the United States.  Most of the towers are owned by a handful of companies such as Crown Castle (39,739 towers), American Tower (28,463 towers), and SBA Communications (14,873 towers). As the demand for cellular service increases and uninterrupted cellular service in rural areas becomes the norm, the demand for cell phone towers increases as well.

The average cell phone tower rental rate is currently $45,000 per year. Massachusetts has the highest annual lease rates ranging from $91,000 to $535,000. The average cost of building a cell phone tower is $150,000. With an average cost of $195,000 for the first year of cell phone tower rental and building, the costs of adding new towers can be daunting for cellular providers. As the cellular industry grows and changes, cellular providers are looking for ways to cut down on operating costs and gain market share in a growing industry.

Recently, cellular providers have entered into partnerships with cellular tower owners to gain a foothold in the lucrative cell tower industry. In these partnerships, cellular providers and cellular tower owners share the usage of cellular towers in order to cut down on costs. As a result, cell tower land leases have been transferred from cellular providers to cell phone tower operators.

Many cell tower leases include provisions which state that under certain circumstances cell phone tower rental rates will change and additional payments must be made to the landlord. Tenants in new partnerships often breach these provisions and end up owing landlords thousands of dollars in unpaid rent. However, many property owners are not aware of the money they are owed, allegedly allowing cellular providers to pay lower cell phone tower rental rates.

A cell tower lawsuit investigation has been launched to help property owners determine whether their tenants owe them additional lease payments based on new cell phone tower rental rates. A cell tower lawsuit can pursue past and future payment of rent. Filing a cell tower lawsuit could help owners recover monetary damages.