Cell tower terms, in plain words.
The words that come up when a tower is bought or sold, each in a sentence or two. Where a term matters to a sale, the guides say how.
- Macro tower
- A free-standing communications tower, usually 100 to 400 ft, built to carry several carriers' antennas. The three structure types are self-support, monopole, and guyed.
- Self-support tower
- A lattice tower with three or four legs that stands on its own foundation, with no guy wires. It carries the most load of the three types.
- Monopole
- A single tapered steel pole, usually 100 to 200 ft, with antennas on platforms or flush to the pole. Common where zoning limits the footprint.
- Guyed tower
- A slim lattice mast held upright by guy wires anchored in the ground around it. Tall and inexpensive per foot, but it needs a large parcel.
- Tower cash flow (TCF)
- The rent a tower's tenants pay, less the ground rent and the tower's own operating costs. The number a buyer prices.
- TCF multiple
- A tower's price divided by its tower cash flow. Published references for tower sales run from about 15 to 40 times TCF; a specific tower lands in that range on its facts.
- Collocation
- More than one carrier sharing one tower, each at its own rad center. A collocation-ready tower has the structural capacity and the open heights for the next tenant.
- Rad center
- The height on the tower, measured from the ground, at which a tenant's antennas are centered. Each tenant leases one.
- Anchor tenant
- The first carrier on a tower, whose lease the tower was usually built for. Its term and escalator set the floor of the tower's cash flow.
- Ground lease
- The agreement under which the tower owner rents the land beneath the tower from the landowner. It transfers with the tower when the tower is sold.
- Ground-lease tenor
- The years left on a ground lease including its renewal options. Twenty or more is the mark buyers look for.
- Fee-owned
- Land the tower owner holds outright, so the tower pays no ground rent. Fee-owned sites carry a premium.
- Escalator
- The scheduled increase in rent written into a lease, as a percentage each year or each term. It applies to tenant rent and to ground rent alike.
- Estoppel certificate
- A short statement signed by a landowner or tenant confirming that a lease exists, its current rent, and that neither side is in default. Buyers and lenders ask for it before closing.
- SNDA
- Subordination and non-disturbance agreement: a lender's document in which the lender agrees to honor a lease if it forecloses, and the other party agrees that the lender's interest comes first.
- ASR
- Antenna structure registration: the FCC's record of a tower taller than 200 ft or near an airport. The seven-digit ASR number identifies the structure in the FCC's public database.
- FAA determination (Form 7460-1)
- The FAA's finding that a structure of a given height at a given place is no hazard to air navigation. The as-built height must match it.
- Letter of intent (LOI)
- A buyer's written offer stating price and main terms for a tower, before the binding contract. Trinity River's LOI is set to the engineering.
- Purchase and sale agreement (PSA)
- The binding contract to sell a tower, signed after the LOI, that sets the diligence period and the closing.
- Master lease agreement (MLA)
- A carrier's standard lease terms, agreed once with a tower owner, under which each site is added by a short site lease.
- Notice to proceed (NTP)
- The carrier's written go-ahead for installation on a site, which usually starts rent.
- Right of first refusal (ROFR)
- A right, often in a ground lease, to match any offer before the land or the tower is sold to someone else. It can delay a sale, so buyers check for it early.
- Structural analysis
- A licensed engineer's calculation of what a tower can carry under its design code and the loads on it. A stamped analysis showing headroom is what turns "there is room" into a number.
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