Have you ever wondered how your friend who lives thousands of miles away can send you a text message in an instant? Here’s a simple explanation of how wireless communication works and what elements are responsible for making it happen.

As a landowner who leases his or her land for a cell tower, you might receive an offer to sell the lease at some point. Perhaps you are deliberating within yourself whether or not you should sell, and why.

Your reluctance to sell is reasonable for a variety of reasons. An active lease provides a constant trickle of income. Additionally, selling your lease to someone or a company can be a daunting task that you might be unprepared for.

Should you overcome your indecision, selling your cell tower leasing can result in a number of benefits for you. Here are three of them:

Capital

Although you receive lease payments every month, you won’t be able to tap into that as a long-term revenue stream. Selling your cell site lease can grant you large amounts of capital to invest in other long-term ventures.

Risk Reduction

Not only does selling your cell site lease give you capital, but also it reduces your risk against inflation or an early termination of the lease. Additionally, you minimize the risk of owning a devalued lease when the cell tower becomes obsolete.

Tax Treatment

While it depends on the situation, selling your cell tower lease can also grant you a favorable tax treatment. What this means is that you can defer taxes through a “1031 exchange” if you purchase another property following the lease’s sale.

To ensure that you get the most out of selling your lease, always seek advice from an experienced professional.

With the various developments in technology, different wireless networks have been developed to facilitate instantaneous communication. Cellular networks, or mobile networks, are radio networks that are distributed over land areas known as cells. Each cell is served by at least one fixed-location transceiver. To avoid interferences, different cells use different sets of radio frequencies that are distinguishable from their immediate neighboring cells.

A cell site is a cellular phone site where electronic communications equipment—such as transmitter/receivers transceivers, digital signal processors, GPS receivers, backup electrical power sources—are installed. Usually, cell sites can be found on radio masts, towers, and other high places to create a cell in a cellular network. Common structures that are used for cell sites include flagpoles, roof tops, water tanks, smoke stacks, and grain silos.

Some cities in the United States and Canada require cell sites to be inconspicuous to avoid being eyesores to the public. These are known as concealed cell sites or stealth cell sites. Cell tower owners who collect rent payments from cell tower leases or cell site leases could maximize their assets' full revenue potential by partnering with reputable investors in cellular site locations.

Cellular lease purchases differ from rental income because the asset is turned into one large cash payment. This will enable cell tower owners to pursue various other investment prospects, settle or decrease their debts, fund capital projects, and reduce the risk of the site decommissioning.

If you can’t imagine life without your smartphone or any other gadget that connects to a cellular network, then you probably can’t live without cell towers as well. These structures, also referred to as base stations, transmit and receive radiofrequency (RF) signals that cellular phones use to send messages or call. Although cell towers are usually out of sight, since they have to be high enough to cover an area (around 50-200 feet high), it still pays to know a little bit about them given the vital role they play in telecommunications.

How do they work?

Whenever you use your cellular phone, it sends RF waves to nearby cell towers that transmit your call or message to its destination. Multiple carriers or providers can share the use of a single tower by placing their own equipment, or radio transmitters and receivers on the site.

Why are they valuable?

Other than their value in telecommunications, several landlords and investors actually consider cell towers as potentialiy lucrative opportunities. A tower located in a strategic areamakes it indispensable to numerous carriers. In fact, a number of cell phone companies would be willing to pay large rents just to maintain, or increase the scope of their service.