#85: Cell Tower Industry & Wireless Network Competition
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In today's episode, we welcome Hugh Odom. He's a former AT&T attorney, and the founder and president of vertical consultant, a telecom consulting firm that has provided consulting advice for companies like Walmart, McDonald's, Disney, and governmental institutions like the United States Postal Service; New York Housing Authority; Veteran Affairs; the City of Atlanta and the City of Charlotte.
Hugh can share the evolving story of how the telecom industry has and will become more crucial based upon the COVID-19 pandemic. And the new normal that will result after COVID has run its course, as the founder and president of vertical consultants who wants to demystify not only what is being reported in the news. But what is going on behind the scenes inside companies like AT&T, Verizon, and T Mobile. He has been a resource in many newspapers, podcasts, radio shows, and blogs for years.
In today's episode we’re discussing…
[2:34] What vertical consultant is, and how they work
[4:52] Telecom industry has two basic parts to work, and how COVID has changed this industry
[9:28] Infrastructure and network capability plans due ‘new normal’
[11:44] Federal government role in network infrastructure
[14:01] How being communicated has become a basic need
[16:17] Why technology changes too fast and how the competition plays on that
[18:05] The background of 2G, 3G, and 4G technology and how would be 5G and even 6G
[21:35] Why this industry is like the oil industry was 100 years ago
[24:22] How competitors would face the cell industry changes
[27:47] Some advice on how to deal with cell tower lease and what determines the value
Hugh’s Top Tip’s
“Our primary mission, we work with a lot of different property from individual property owners all the way up to municipalities, universities, large corporations, and we help in a lot of areas, but two basic areas of the property or been engaged by a cell tower company or wireless carrier like AT&T, Verizon, to put something on their property, we help new value that negotiates and structure those agreements out”
“We work to try to make sure that the property or gets the best value today, best value going forward, and also protect them. So, if there are things that they don't understand exactly, the nature of these agreements could negatively impact their overall property”
“When COVID hit it, we have so many people more getting on the wireless infrastructure, and wireless networks are existing because they were trying to do work on their businesses handle business situations where they're working out their houses, telehealth issues, educational issues, all these things are handled, and you're pumping, pumping so much data, and you already didn't have enough infrastructure built out. So, we're gonna have to build out a whole lot more”
“We've jumped into the mode about which a cell phone used to be a luxury, it is a utility, besides air, water, and food, the one thing you rely upon most every day is communication, either through a phone call a text message, an email, whatever, if I tell people to look, I will make you a bet. Everybody in your family either can stop eating or drinking something for the next three hours I can't do anything online can't do with their phone”
“I use the comparison of the history of 100 years ago, the oil companies come out to the property owner and say, look, I want to lease your land, I'll give you a certain amount of rent for a month, I'll give you an escalator every year. And I get to keep all the oil, right, and what eventually had to happen, we saw the inequity in that arrangement, because of probably already getting a small portion of the value versus all the oil is being produced out of that property”.
“But from Exxon, I bet you the first question you would ask is how much oil you think you'll be getting? right? So, because you want to pay based on how much production they're getting from your property. It's the same thing with cell tower company, what you need to think about it, let's put a structure in place to make sure as increases in value as they get more value out of my property”.
“I'm being pulled up as well, if not, you're going to be left behind and that's why all the cell tower companies have huge not just such revenues but such profit margins because they have a model by which they fix their costs, they keep on getting more and more revenue, and their margins go up.”
“Remember back to the old Kodak camera. And Kodak really didn't care about selling you the camera, they want to sell you the film, they made more money off the film, the cell, the wireless carriers, they want to sell you the service, but what their bigger goal is today and more particularly move forward, they want to be able to sell you the content. And so that's the big play here with regards to all this with 3 carrier industry”
“But the big thing is understanding, you know, that knock comes on your door, whether it be to renegotiate the existing lease or enter into a new one is understanding the big word isn't? People ask us a lot of times, what's the market rent in this area? How much should I be getting? That's we try to get people to just delete that word from their vocabulary when they deal with a cell tower lease, understand the value of that one site, one because that's how AT&T looks at it, that’s how Verizon looks at, etc.”
Mike’s Top Tip’s
“Everyone has a cell phone now. No matter what economic class you're in. And because landlines are going out of style. That's sometimes the only way that you can dial 911. Get telemedicine type of help. Order things, especially during emergencies. You know, just start thinking about cell service”.
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Mike Stohler What if you could be doing something smarter with your money that creates income. Now, if you're wanting to get ahead financially, and enjoy greater freedom of choice, if you want a comfortable retirement, and you know you'll have more choices, if you can do more with your money. Now, if you've wondered who else is creating ways to make their money work for them, and you want actionable ideas, with honest pros and cons, and Bill flow. Welcome to the richer geek podcast. We're here helping people find creative ways to build wealth and financial freedom. I'm Mike Stoller, and in this podcast, you'll hear from others who are already doing these things, and learn how you can.
In today's episode, we're welcome Hugh Odom. He's a former at&t attorney, and the founder and president of vertical consultant, a telecom consulting firm that has provided consulting advice for companies like Walmart, McDonald's, Disney and governmental institutions. Hugh can share the evolving story of how the telecom industry has and will become more crucial based upon the COVID 19 pandemic. And the new normal that will result after COVID-19 has run its course, as the founder and president of vertical consultants who wants to demystify not only what is being reported in the news. But what is going on behind the scenes inside companies like at&t, Verizon, and T Mobile. Hugh has been a resource in many newspapers, podcast, radio shows and blogs for years. Alright, welcome back to the richer geek podcast. today we welcome Hugh Odom is a former at&t attorney and the current founder and president of vertical consultants, welcome to show Hugh
Hugh Odom
I appreciate it, we appreciate the opportunity to be part of your program.
Mike Stohler
Today, in this episode, we're going to talk about the state of the wireless industry and what's going on, I think a lot of our listeners that are in the tech business are, I don't know, I'm not gonna say stuck to the phones right now, you know, but they use their cell phones probably as much as they do their laptops. Now, before we dive into some of the topics, tell us a little bit about vertical consultants.
Hugh Odom Well, our primary mission, we work with a lot of different property from individual property owners all the way up to municipalities, universities, large corporations, we've done work with Walmart, McDonald's, New York Housing Authority, etc. and we help in a lot of areas, but two basic areas of the property or been engaged by a cell tower company or wireless carrier like at&t, Verizon, to put something on their property, we help new value that negotiate and structure those agreements out. If they already have an existing agreement on their property, either a traditional cell tower, or on top of the roof, or other parts of their building or, or even a campus situation, we work with them to look at the value of that, hopefully renegotiate those agreements are and our average increase in value over the last few years has been a 300 plus percent increase in median increase in revenue, they're producing for those agreements, just because for the most part, those agreements are substantially undervalued right now, but also how they're structured going forward as well. So we work to try to make sure that the property or gets the best value today, Best Value going forward, and also protect them. So if there's things that they don't understand exactly, the nature of these agreements, could have a negative impact on their overall property.
Mike Stohler
You know, it's it's interesting, because it seems like if I could, whether I'm in Arizona right now, and it seems like whether I go north or south or a couple different ones, it seems like I need three different types of cell phones, you know, maybe one from each carrier, because, you know, I cross a certain line, all of a sudden at&t does work and Verizon works better. So, you know, I don't know if that's just a bandwidth problem, or they need more towers. And maybe it's a COVID-19 thing, because I'm really starting to, to see it now. Is it a stability thing? Is it a infrastructure problem due to the COVID-19 surges? And, you know, how about emergency services? You know, I kind of threw a lot of things in there. But talk to us about, is it an infrastructure problem? You know, what, especially during COVID
Hugh Odom Well, it's a combination the industry the telecom industry is made up of two basic parts. You have the technology portion which everybody sees on TV 5g and all these technology and all these apps and everything else that works on your phone, that's technology. The other part of it is the infrastructure. That's the cell tower, just the antenna arrays on top of buildings, etc. And the technology part is trying always trying to catch up with more particularly back years ago, when you first had a cell phone, it would be we're out of out of range, we didn't have enough range. And so you're kind of getting a range, there's plenty of range. The problem is that the data usage has increased so much over the years, it's just exponentially increased. And you think about that right now. And you have two issues, you need to get the equipment changed out, you need to upgrade the equipment, but also to when you're upgrading the equipment, you need additional infrastructure to put that equipment on the additional equipment that handle that handle that that that 5g equipment, let's just say. And the issue that we run into right now is that that already existed prior to COVID. When COVID hit it, just like you had it, you had a flame and you see some gasoline on it. And it just became a payment so much worse, because we have so many people more getting on the wireless infrastructure, and wireless networks are existing, because they were trying to do work on their businesses handle business situations where they're working out their houses, telehealth issues, educational issues, all these things be handled, and you're pumping, pumping so much data, and you already didn't have enough infrastructure built out. So we're gonna have to build out a whole lot more. Right now. They're approxi, about 500,000, cell sites, cell towers, etc. In the United States, for the 5g build out, this was prior to COVID for the five big 5g build out to work got to build up to another million, you're doubling what you already have. So that people see 5g on TV, there's no such thing 5g really doesn't exist right now to this total capacity, you're gonna have 5g light, light. And so what what's what's happening is, we're using data like we need, we already have 5g in place. So the problem is you have to get going moving faster and faster. And so it's just not enough infrastructure. And the technology had been replaced as of yet, either.
Mike Stohler
Okay, so it's, it's a problem for both because I was wondering, like, why are they worried about this 5g thing? I just want to make a phone call. And maybe it's my age, you know, cuz I'm not gaming? Or I'm not, you know, you know, doing a lot of the data part. But it seems it's so it's kind of like a compression. And so it's kind of where, every day around a certain time period? I mean, it just goes, is that? Because there's just so many people in the pipeline at one time? Is that the issue?
Hugh Odom
Well, yes, and I feel your pain with regards to the phone situation. Because, you know, I've been in this industry for 20 plus years, and I walk into get a phone, and they show me all these different things you can do. And I say, how's it make a phone call? You know, that's the last thing they show you. So actually, you have a small computer that, yeah, by the way, it makes a phone call every once in a while. So the issue, like you mentioned is that they're trying to change all these different things in the in the networking, and there's just so much data being used. And you're right, at certain portions of the day, just kind of like rush hour, you know, in the morning, you have a lot of people with a certain area in the afternoon, you have a lot group one certain area, same thing happens with regards to cell sites being hit with regards to usage, and, and the equipment more particularly being hit with usage. And it doesn't have enough bandwidth to handle that. So what happens, everything slows down. And that go translates all the way down to your ability to make a phone call to get a signal to call somebody down the road or cross country it that that part of your phone just like every other part of your phone, like downloading a movie gets impacted as well.
Mike Stohler Now do the network's you know, how don't want to freeze? Do they have? Are they too late? Do they have the capability to maintain all this, you know, the business and the personal requirements? And especially now, you know, now we have all the kids and everyone doing the 5g and or you know all the data, but now we have 10s of millions of people that are working from home. They're doing their zoom calls from their phone? Do they have that capability to maintain it? Or are they now just kind of rushing in trying to say like, Oh, my God, you know, we need to strengthen this now?
Hugh Odom
Well, you know, they had plans in place to build out the network even greater capacity that already was and COVID was unexpected for everybody. So, as I mentioned before, this just ramped that up, it pushed up the timeline with trying to get this put into place. Now, your question, do they have the capability? Yes. The problem is, do they have the capability if you're in Phoenix, Arizona, yes, but if you're in Tucson, maybe not, because they're not going to focus on Tucson or Sedona or something like that. They're going to focus on areas that give them the highest return on investment by building other networks. So they have the capability if you're in the right location, yes, if you're in a rural location or lesser location for their particular investment they're going to make, it may be a while we've done a lot of studies on this, and a lot of we've been on TV and radio, etc, about what's called the wireless divide, and how certain areas of the country if you're a rural area, you get a you know, you're lagging behind your ability to work, your ability to telehealth, your ability to educate your children is different from somebody, maybe even 10 miles up the road, who's in an urban area, and you have this kind of, you know, they call it's called the digital divide, or the I call it the wireless wall, that you go past this point in this area, and you're and you're in, you're out of service, you can't, you can't not only get service, you may be able to get I should say, but it is so diminish, you're you're like running, it's like running a race and you're running on one leg versus two legs, and you can never gonna never gonna be able to keep up. So can it be done? Yes. The problem is where the focus is going to be over the next few years.
Mike Stohler Now, what kind of role do you think the federal government should take as far as with these rural type of places? You know, cuz I know that, you know, we have a place a half hour south of us perfect. where we're at, it's nothing, I can't do anything. You know, it's it's zero. Should the federal government set up something like temporary antennas? Or I don't know, we call antennas or stations, cell sites? Or is it? Was it something that they should stay out of?
Hugh Odom I think there's there's there's some short term and long term solutions. And with regards to the short term solution, I think what you're referring to is kind of set up some basically temporary kind of sites like you see in a hurricane or earthquake or something like that, but more on a nationwide kind of scope, because of what's happening right now at COVID. That's something that we are seeing, to some extent by the wireless carriers themselves, but needs to be spread out greater on a bigger planning side. For the federal government, what I believe the two solutions are should be put in place is that one, either what you do with regards to the at&t Verizon t mobile's world, you say look, you can't you can't discriminate based upon your highest return on investment if we're going to sell you this bandwidth a spectrum we they sell, to allow them to do certain things to provide the service that you have to if you're going to build in I'm we're about located in Nashville, Tennessee, our home office here, if you're building in Nashville proper, you have to build a surrounding area around there. And so you have to you have to spend money now in the in the urban area, but it's surrounding rural areas as well. That's the best possible solution number one seconds possible solution is that what you do is it those companies, those larger carriers can't meet those requirements. You open up the gates where you allow small local and regional companies to build those networks for those areas. And you're seeing a lot of that not a lot, you're getting some of that in certain rural areas where they're going in and building their own networks around around those areas to serve their community, because they're, they believe that they're never going to get the attention of an att, Verizon or T Mobile, to focus on them. It's very much like the if you think you'd go back in history back in the 1940s. And earlier of certain areas, the country had a utility service electric service, why has a Reuters it didn't have it. So the federal government had to step in and step in and say hell on you, we have to have a nationwide, you know, nationwide effort to get everybody served. Because we've, we jumped into the mode about which a cell phone used to be a luxury, it is a utility, as you mentioned earlier, you know, besides air, water and food, the one thing you rely upon most every day is communication, either through a phone call a text message, an email, whatever, if I tell people look, I will make you a bet. Everybody in your family either can stop eating or drinking something for the next three hours I can't do anything online can't do with their their phone, I promise you it'd be tougher to not pick up that phone and rather not take a drink or or eat something eat a snack or that period of time. So it's just a it's becoming it's become a utility, much like any other other utilities rely upon.
Mike Stohler
Yeah, and that's, you know, I never thought about it that way. Because it's seems like everyone has a cell phone now. No matter what economic class you're in. And because landlines are going out of style. That's sometimes the only way that you can dial 911. Get telemedicine type of help. Order things, you know, especially during emergencies. You know, just start thinking about cell service as that That right, you know that utility of almost, you know, survival. You know, it's a kind of a, it's an interesting I just I always thought it was luxury, it's like, yeah, you know, because maybe I Well, there is a call,
Hugh Odom
there's an interesting study, a pew research study that, that under I think it was $40,000. If you make under $40,000, do you think a lot of rural areas, people make lesser amounts per year that have that classification. 20% of those people rely solely upon cell phones, for online service. So everything they're doing, they don't have a computer, they don't have access to a laptop, so they have to look everything on their phone, that's kind of their that's how their mode of communication, their mute mode of research and finding things from, you know, we're a hospital, maybe you have to go get food, etc, etc. So it is a situation by which that there needs to be a bigger plan to allow for this to happen. It not only serves people, but also it discriminates, because it puts a wall between businesses being able to compete if you're an area that has a lesser availability to networking, versus a one down the street, but you can offer certain things that other company can offer as well.
Mike Stohler
Yeah, it's Yeah, I mean, it's kind of changed my at my idea of, of the whole thing, you know, I just, I haven't thought about it in that way. By the time they get everything done as far as the 5g, you know, and I know that COVID-19 is probably expedited a lot of things as far as the immediate build out. What's next? You know, by the time they catch up, the 5g is going to be six G, you know, and all of a sudden, they need eight, it's, is it going? A lot of technology just happens so fast, you know, are they always going to be in this catch up? Are we going to have 5g for a while? Or is it going to be just keep going? You think?
Hugh Odom
Well, I'll make two statements of that 60 is already under? No, it's already being developed right now. China is taking the lead a little bit on that, with regards to testing. And so what usually happens, it takes about every 10 years, you have an upgrade from 4g to 5g, etc. We started for consultants in 2010, when I was before that I was with at&t for over a decade. And some of the last project I worked on in 2009. And 10, was that in Alaska, that they were starting to test 5g that's 2010 Here we are in 2021. So the same thing is gonna happen now 60. Look, 5g, when it gets to totally build out, which probably be another four or five years is really going to change a lot of the dynamics of how we have an economy, how we educate how we have our health, it's gonna, it's gonna change a lot of different things and a lot of different ways. Some good, maybe some not so good, because it comes depersonalized. But that's another story. Because you have, you're relying upon a network to have communication rather than face to face. But that's another story. But But 60 just takes it to another level, it's almost sofar level with regards to how everybody is connected. The problem with six G, the great thing of six G is you'll have such accessibility, and you'll have all these different things that provide you the network. The problem with six G, in my humble opinion, is that basically everybody will be connected to everybody. And so you'll know everything going on, if you have a phone is basically a tracking device. That's what basically think of it the way they're going to handle if you see like self driving cars and everything else, one way they can handle that is no everybody is right. So they have to track everybody, you can't have the all these things with regards to with regard to that technology, unless you're tracking everybody where they are, they're going to have things six G technology is supposedly gonna have the ability where it's going to be to some degree, think of you have a contact lens in your in your eye and you can when you're walking past them, you'll see information about that person, and you'll be tracking that is a lot of stuff that becomes a very sci fi if you start looking at some futuristic movies and you think well, that's just ridiculous. That's what this allows you to do. And the problem with is it provides a lot of good things, but you have to make sure you control some of the bad things that could have can happen if you allow that, that interconnection among everybody from privacy to control of situations as well.
Mike Stohler
So yeah, a couple sci fi movies are coming to my mind and I don't think any of them turned out really well. Yeah, you know, he's talking about the, the big brother and all that sort of things. It's it's, it's without technology, you can do good. But there's also people that will do bad you know, it's well there's
Hugh Odom
a there's an old saying there's a price for progress. And that's part of it and you get, you get a little, but you give up more. And that's where the balancing act comes into play with.
Mike Stohler
You know, it's amazing because, you know, because I'm not in the industry, I just thought that difference between 3g and 5g and 6’s. Just kind of like things would be just a lot faster. But it's, you know, I guess I didn't really quite understand what that G, you know what, that it's a it's a whole technology, craziness. That's it?
Hugh Odom Yes. I mean, it becomes a situation by which, if you think about, if you think about, let's say, five years ago, or 10 years ago, even back that for not just the you know, you were relying on the phone to make a phone call, but think of all the data that you transfer off your phone, think of just the data, your personal information, where you're going what you're, you know, typing out as it gets, it's all out there. So you think about that, you're not just making a phone call, it used to be, you know, the, they're tapping my phone line, somebody's listening to my phone line, well, that's the least of your worries, isolation word. I mean, you think about your emails are on there, your your passwords are on there, your bank accounts are on there, I can go on and on. I don't wanna scare people. But it's a situation by which it becomes it becomes a connection device for everybody, which is good. But it also becomes a hazard if you don't know how to control it as well.
Mike Stohler So this is kind of like, the big boom that's coming in. And you know, like, you're saying, it's kind of like the oil industry was 100 years ago. And this is kind of like the, the next?
Hugh Odom
Well, yeah, we can pair it. That's one of the things we work with our clients, we try to get them to understand that we negotiate the grievous for those for our property owners, our clients to or at&t or Verizon or other cell tower companies to use their property. And the comparison we make is what people are doing. Now they're negotiating the wrong type of agreements out, I use the comparison of the history of 100 years ago, because if you think about it, think about 100 years ago, the oil companies come out to the property owner and say, Look, I want to lease your land, I'll give you a certain amount of rent for a month, I'll give you an escalator every year. And I get to keep all the oil, right, and what eventually had to happen. Because we saw the just the the the inequity in that arrangement, because of probably already getting a small portion of the value versus all the oil is being produced out of that property. The same thing was the model was followed after the cell tower companies, they go out, they go to a property owner, they say, Hey, I'm going to offer you a certain amount of rent a certain escalator and I'm going to get you agree to a long term agreement. Basically, they're fixing their cost. And they keep on getting more and more value out of these, the size. What you're entering into when you're in a cell tower agree that is a utility agreement, even though you're leasing space, the value of that of that cell towers based upon how much value is being produced, just like an old oil isn't valued based upon other wells or getting an area they're based upon that one, well, how much production how much oil is getting out of there. So I'll give you an example for our clients when they're first talking to us. And they say how much rich I've been getting how much rent I say Don't worry about rent, worry about the structure. And this rent is a derivative of that structure. I said, if I came out to you tomorrow, I said I'm on lease the same amount of space as the cell towers going to use. And I was going to pay you double what the cell tower company is going to pay. But from Exxon, I bet you the first question you would ask is how much oil you think you'll be getting? Right? So because you want to pay based on how much production they're getting from your for your property. It's the same thing with a cell tower companies, what what you need to think about is, hey, let's get it right today. But let's put a structure in place to make sure as increases in value as they get more value out of my property. I'm being pulled up as well, if not, you're going to be left behind and that's what that's why all the cell tower companies have huge not just such revenues but such profit margins because they have a model by which they they fix their costs, they keep on getting more and more revenue, and their margins go up.
Mike Stohler So, that's very interesting. Now how about the who was just a, I don't know is probably not a monopoly but trying to think who just merged with sprint and T Mobile
Hugh Odom
sprint T Mobile correct?
Mike Stohler
How's that going to affect Was that good?
Hugh Odom
Well, it's good goodness, that's where sprint for the long term wasn't gonna make it in our opinion. It was just the financial financials didn't work out for them long term. So it made sense. in that aspect. You go down from a four four carrier industry for major tier one carriers or some smaller carriers. But two three, so you again, you lose some price competition amongst the the, the the cares what's going to happen. What I think is what is happening already is Dish Network, which most people think about in for satellite TV Dish Network is stepping into the place of sprint. They're starting to build out a network. To provide telecommunication services, phone service, cell phone services, and so they're getting into it pretty heavily and pretty fast. Look, the bigger the the bigger picture for all these companies is, think about it. And I think we're both of the age we remember back the old Kodak camera, right. And Kodak really didn't care about selling you the camera, they want to sell you the film, they made more money off the film, the sell the the the wireless carriers, they want to sell you the service, but what their bigger goal is today and more particularly move forward, they want to be able to sell you the content. And so that's the big play here with regards to all this. So what's happening is now you have the three big carriers, and what they've done the at&t, Verizon and T Mobile, if you think about it, they were originally telecom companies. So think of all those companies today, when they got into content media, they've got into to actually providing content, at&t has got into the media, business, they own CNN, they own other companies, you know, for the guards who provide you content. Same thing with rosin. Same thing with T Mobile dish is going about it backwards. They're in there somewhere the content business and now they're getting the telecommunications business. So these guys love that you buy their camera, kind of the analogy, but they want to sell you the film, they want to be able to sell you everything associated with that with that phone. So that's the long the long, the short of it is that the merger had to happen. I think it's going to there'll be a gap that's filled by Dish Network, I don't know if it can be filled, exactly fill the spots rent was, but you're going to see these four companies keep on building out their services, but where they're going to build out their services for is not just to provide you service is to provide you content.
Mike Stohler
Yeah, well, yeah, it's, you know, it's just so interesting today, you know, we've learned I was I was thinking it's like, okay, we're going to talk about some cell phone stuff and wireless stuff. And it's like, wow, you know, it's just whole other aspect. And, you know, now it makes me, you know, think about with our listeners out there, you know, so basically, if, if they have a cell tower lease already, they should give you a call. But then now I'm thinking about all of our investors that have apartment buildings, or maybe hotels that, you know, they have land, they have different types of assets that they could start looking to see if, you know, should they contact the network, you know, the at&t and Verizon T Mobile, those type of things to get? Or should they call you first?
Hugh Odom
Well, you know, what will tell you in general is that you shouldn't go chase down and at&t Verizon on your own, because they're really, they're gonna have a plan in place of where they want to build out if I took all your properties, and I went to a meeting and he said, Hey, we have these properties, they're gonna say, okay, we're gonna build our network around these properties, it's not going to work that way. It kind of like I'm building out a railroad where the railroad is going across the lands, not where the land is, you know, build a rail or that way. So, but what we're going to say my opinion is, with regards to people have existing sites, they're going to see a lot of modifications made on their properties, a lot of situation because of the upgrades I mentioned earlier with 5g that's going to give them some opportunity to renegotiate and increase the revenue, they're currently getting off their existing agreements. With regards to property owners who who are out there, right now, you're going to see an uptick and possible engagements have to them with regards to putting something on the property. The one thing we can do is, you can't we can kind of increase the odds a little bit and narrow the connection points between a property owner and the and the carrier. So let's say, but we can't pick up the phone and say, Hey, T Mobile, we got this property is going to be happening in the next six months. It just didn't work that way. But, but there's gonna be a lot of opportunity out there. But the big thing is understanding, you know, that knock comes on your door, whether it be to renegotiate existing lease or enter into a new one is understand the big word isn't? You know, wait, people ask us a lot of times, what's the market rent in this area? How much should I be getting? That's we try to get people to just delete that word from their vocabulary when they deal with a cell tower lease, understand the value of that one site, one because that's how at&t looks at it. That's how Verizon looks at excetera. When they're looking at it, let's say if you're in Phoenix, Arizona, they're looking at Phoenix. They don't say in this zip code inside Vegas. Our sites have the same value because then there's one little area they say no, they look at them individually. The we say to our clients, don't worry about what they're offering you understand what you're offering them. Because if I offer you $2, but it's worth $10 to me, you may leave with $2 in your pocket, but I like that deal every day. Right? So that's where we try to get our property or think bigger than some of the things we've talked about earlier. These are bigger things you need to think about because that's determining value. If you understand what their plan is, then you can understand how to capture some of that value is on your side as well.
Mike Stohler
Yeah, okay. It's my mind is blown today. How can you know to wrap up for those that have the silt up leases or in the future? How can people find you?
Hugh Odom
Well, the easiest way is to look our website which is cell tower, lease experts comm again, that sells our lease experts calm look us up, contact us via email or in the contact forms, or we have phone numbers available on our website and give us a call.
Mike Stohler
Sounds great. Well, whew, it's been a pleasure, and we hope you have a great evening. Thank you again for allowing.
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ABOUT HUGH ODOM
Hugh Odom is a former AT&T attorney (for over 11 years) and the founder and president of Vertical Consultants, a telecom consulting firm that has provided consulting advice for companies like WalMart, McDonalds and Disney, and governmental institutions like the United States Postal Service; New York Housing Authority; Veteran Affairs; the City of Atlanta and the City of Charlotte. Hugh can share the evolving story of how the telecom industry (services, infrastructure, cell site locations) has and will become more crucial based upon the COVID-19 pandemic and the “new normal” that will result after COVID-19 has run its course. As the founder and President of Vertical Consultants, Hugh wants to demystify not only what is being reported in the news but what is going on behind the scenes inside companies like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.
Hugh has been a resource to newspapers, podcasts, radio shows, and blogs for years.