Owner/CEO at JP Tower Consulting - Specializing in cell tower lease buyouts & lease renegotiations
Based on the article's findings, I agree with the jury's decision. Historically, tower companies prefer to avoid public conflicts. Crown’s attitude can seem petty to outsiders, and I don't see any advantage for Crown even if they had won. Dish has co-located on about 3,300 sites, planning to expand to 20,000, which is half of Crown's total towers. This represents a significant potential for new business, something Dish would want to avoid based on this lawsuit. Per the article, even American Tower wanted nothing to do with this dispute, understanding that no good would come from it. In the past, tower companies consistently increased rents through tenant amendments, ballooning rents everywhere including rural areas. Early MLAs were highly beneficial to tower companies, driving annual growth and site commitments. A comparison of historic stock prices between AT&T, Verizon, and tower companies over the last 15 years shows how much the tower companies were getting the better of the carriers. However, things slowly started to change as carrier tower portfolios were sold, securing low market rents with a 2% escalator. Developers like Tillman entered the market, seemingly to gain leverage for the carriers in MLA negotiations. They targeted high-rent rural sites for zoning ease. Carriers could finally start to control rents for seemingly forever at some of these sites that the tower developers built. It also forced the tower companies to offer holistic MLAs which wouldn’t penalize the carrier if they were within their designated tower mount height on any additional equipment installed. It's rare for tower companies to announce major layoffs due to their historically profitable nature. There are many factors for the decline in tower company stocks but one can’t overlook the carrier’s slowdown in work. Now that might have more to do with the economy but it’s another sign of how the carriers can look to control costs even if unintended. #celltowerleasing #telecomindustry #celltowerbusiness #wirelessinfrastructure
Do you think the jury made the right decision?
Strategic Real Estate, Wireless Infrastructure & Enterprise Sales Leader
4moGreat insight John.