Rental for WiFi tower?

[sarahwaries]

We are a high site for a wireless internet service provider. They have a couple of dishes on our house and give us free WiFi for my house and my office.
They now want to take the dishes off the house and put up a 12m tower in an unused piece of our property.
They have offered us an additional R2000 a month for this "inconvenience".
Does this sound like a fair amount? I know cell phone towers pay upwards of R8k, sometimes as much as R20-30k a month if they are in a very desirable location.
I would expect WiFi towers to be less but R2000 seems a bit low.
We are a key high site for them, so they need us to say yes. Any idea how much would be reasonable?
Anybody have a similar WiFi tower on their property?

 

[|tera|]

It's a fair price.
8K for the volume of people on a Cell Tower vs 2K for a WISP. A WISP doesn't even get close to the volume of a Cell Tower.

 

[Captain Beer]

I live in a fairly large "gated community" and one of the local WISPs is paying us R9200 p.a. to host their antenna and equipment in a very desirable location.
MTN also has a tower on the property which is costing them R85,000 p.a. including electric.
I'd gladly take the R24,000 a year plus free internet if I were you.

 

[RandomGeek]

We are a high site for a wireless internet service provider. They have a couple of dishes on our house and give us free WiFi for my house and my office.
They now want to take the dishes off the house and put up a 12m tower in an unused piece of our property.
They have offered us an additional R2000 a month for this "inconvenience".
Does this sound like a fair amount? I know cell phone towers pay upwards of R8k, sometimes as much as R20-30k a month if they are in a very desirable location.
I would expect WiFi towers to be less but R2000 seems a bit low.
We are a key high site for them, so they need us to say yes. Any idea how much would be reasonable?
Anybody have a similar WiFi tower on their property?

R2k plus free WiFi isn't bad...they need to be fully responsible for all electrical and security costs though. You may try to squeeze them a bit and see if you can get a few bucks more and maybe end up on something like R2500pm

 

[dunkyd]

6000 plus electricity and full security.
Nothing less.
They can argue you down but you cannot argue them up.
10% a year escalation too.

 

[Hummercellc]

Is the wisp beneficial to the local area?
Do they offer a good service to an under serviced area?
If so, one hand washes the other.

Remember most WISP's do not have deep pockets like the cell networks.

Cell networks have millions of subscribers and rack in billions of Rands a year.

Most WISP's are just breaking even, and normally have a few hundred customers.

Some have a few thousand customers.

At the end of the day, it is your choice, whatever you feel is decent.

Put yourself in their shoes first for a second, what would you be willing to pay if the roles were reversed.

 

[philaniH]

Keep the 2K Bro, squeeze in a once-off fee of R 5K for garden services. Ensure proper grounding for that tower hey. Get your own Accessor!

 

[HartsockZA]

Is the wisp beneficial to the local area?
Do they offer a good service to an under serviced area?
If so, one hand washes the other.

Remember most WISP's do not have deep pockets like the cell networks.

Cell networks have millions of subscribers and rack in billions of Rands a year.

Most WISP's are just breaking even, and normally have a few hundred customers.

Some have a few thousand customers.

At the end of the day, it is your choice, whatever you feel is decent.

Put yourself in their shoes first for a second, what would you be willing to pay if the roles were reversed.

I like this response, cause it is the truth, some smaller wisps have around 50-100 customers and a normal ATC tower is between 6-20K per month excluding equipment per tower, and our IPs and backhaul connections a moer expensive. So we get slammed pretty hard. That said they are giving you a connection and provide you with some home wifi with the 2k I'd say that is fair up until a year passes then you can renegotiate since tower battery theft is on the rise and could make your home a target.

We work with our key high point owners. Be a modest owner and reserve the right to adjust the monthly sub every annum so that everyone gets a fair deal. That or sell the land outright but try work with them all depends.

 

[omni-presence]

I worked in the distribution industry that supplies WISPs. The small to medium guys are not rolling in cash. R2000 & free Internet sounds good to me. Be nice a WISP is a small business worth supporting!

 

[Farmerj]

@sarahwaries , I would love to be in your position and take the offer. I have a perfect high site into an under serviced area, but no one is interested.