Steel in the Air, INC.

Clearwire Lease Negotiations / HOME

Clearwire Lease Negotiations

Steel in the Air, Inc. is not affiliated with Clearwire or Sprint Nextel. If you have found this page in error while searching for Clearwire, please see www.clearwire.com.

Steel in the Air, Inc. assists landowners and rooftop owners with the evaluation and negotiation of Clearwire or Clear cell tower or cell site lease agreements. Clearwire is a wireless broadband internet service provider. Clearwire claims speeds of up to 2.0Mbps- which they compare to DSL or Cable modem speeds. It was founded by Craig McCaw of AT&T fame and is in the process of deploying a WiMax network with its partners: Sprint, Comcast, Google, Intel, and BrightHouse, who have invested over $3.2 billion dollars in the company. Clearwire is actively pursuing a significant number of leases primarily in the 10 cities that they expect to launch service in within the next year. These cities or areas include Boston, New York and surrounding areas, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Chicago, Baltimore, North Carolina, Los Angeles, Austin, TX and San Antonio.

Clearwire is unique in that they are 51% owned by Sprint/Nextel. As a result, in some cases, they can place their equipment inside the Sprint/Nextel lease areas and only need to add antenna to the site. Sprint/Nextel has been attempting in some cases to ask for a simple consent letter from the landowner to sublease to Clearwire. These letters may or may not include compensation. In some cases, these letters suggest that Sprint is simply doing maintenance when in fact they are actually modifying the existing site and adding antennas. In other cases, Clearwire is directly offering a lease rate for the installation of their equipment.

What Clearwire is doing intelligently is that they have encouraged their lease agents to make small initial offers to the landowners for their Clearwire lease agreement. By doing so, they force the landowner to negotiate upwards. Clearwire’s argument is that they use a smaller ground area and that they don’t install as many antennas- both which are typically true. However, this argument belies the fact that they still need rooftops and tower space to provide coverage. Steel in the Air, Inc. believes that it is the location of the site, not the actual square footage that Clearwire leases that is what determines value. We suggest negotiating every Clearwire lease by reviewing what the value is of the location to Clearwire and what alternatives they have or don’t have. Steel in the Air, Inc. can assist you with evaluating their proposals. We can evaluate whether there are other properties or structures that meet their needs and can guide you in determining the appropriate (i.e. maximum) lease rate for your specific location. We determine the appropriate lease rate by looking at our comparable cell tower lease rate database.

If you are approached by Sprint/Nextel or Clearwire to lease your ground space or to lease your rooftop, contact Steel in the Air first. We can assist you with your Clearwire lease negotiation and help you understand what your rights and obligations are. Our services typically run 2 to 2.5 hours and our hourly rate is $500/hour. For more information on why we charge $500/hour - please see our page on the subject.

If you have an existing Sprint/Nextel lease and are being asked to consent to “maintenance” or modifications to your rooftop or land lease site, please contact www.celltowerattorney.com. (Cell Tower Attorney is affiliated with Steel in the Air). Cell Tower Attorney can review your lease from a legal standpoint to determine whether you are obligated to consent to Sprint/Nextel’s request or whether you are entitled to additional compensation.