Be Secure as a Telecom Tower Landlord

  • The rent you receive from the telecom tower on your property is not as dependable as you might think. Your rent can go away for many reasons, most of them completely out of your control. Consolidation in the telecommunications industry, increases in data demand, and advancements in telco tower technology can all play a role in a carrier’s decision to terminate a lease agreement.

  • As wireless carriers look for ways to cut down operating expenses and gain market share in an industry that is demanding more and more bandwidth, mergers and partnerships between carriers are formed to reduce running costs. When carrier consolidations occur, previously established telecom towers and rooftop antennas can suddenly become redundant and thus are removed from the network. While increased data demand would seem to mean better security for your telco site, it doesn’t always work that way, since mobile carriers have little option but to upgrade the site in order to keep up with subscriber demand and technological development.

  • The design and location of a telecommunications network is extremely complicated and constantly changing. Not only does new technology allow for more data to be transmitted over longer distances, but new delivery methods also threaten to replace traditional telecom towers and rooftop antennas, resulting in fewer telco sites needed to cover demand. So while it is true that new telco sites are being built to handle more traffic, existing sites that no longer fit the network plan are also being taken down. Even recently established telecom towers can soon become redundant in just a few years as a result of the constantly changing radio network and telecommunications industry.

  • Even for those who design the network, it is virtually impossible to predict which telecom towers will get terminated in the future. To illustrate this point, although we are telecommunications experts and do a tremendous amount of due diligence to determine the long-term prospects of every telco site lease we buy, we still lose sites every year.

If the telecom industry is so unpredictable why would anyone want to buy your telco site rent?

Your Risk

APWireless Risk

The security behind our investment lies in spreading our risk across a large portfolio of telecom towers and rooftop antennas. Telco site decommissions are inevitable, but we are able to absorb telecom lease terminations because we have so many sites that are still paying rent. As a single telecom tower or small portfolio owner, you do not have that safety net. Your rent is ‘all or nothing’.