From around the mid to late1990s to the turn of the Millennium and just beyond, landowners experienced about a decade which represented something like a goldrush of interest from rival telecom companies, each seeking to establish their own monopoly of telecoms infrastructure. New agreements appear less frequently now but there are still the same valid considerations to bear in mind now as back then.
Whether you entered into a Licence or a Lease with a Telecoms company, great care and consideration ought to have been given before you entered into such an agreement because of the operation of the Telecommunications Code which arises out of statute law and gives telecom companies an appreciable measure of security of tenure. This statutory security of tenure may prevent you from terminating those agreements easily, even where they were expressed as a Licence to Occupy or Agreement or as a Lease.
As a matter of public policy, the Law was designed so as to ensure that the telecoms infrastructure would be protected and could remain in situ for the sake of ensuring an established infrastructure for the Digital Age in this country.
You need to consider the impact of the presence of such a mast upon your retained land very carefully. More so if there is any potential for development of your remaining land.
Many of those agreements may have had provisions preventing site-sharing without the landowner’s consent. Site-sharing may have been more apparent where two telecom companies each needed to erect a dish or transponder upon a single mast but digital technology allows the telecom company the possibility of site-sharing within their existing bandwidth with another telecom company through the existing apparatus without your knowing. You should review your agreement and make enquiry as necessary and ensure that your rent or licence fee is being properly reviewed and paid by those companies.
