The Telecoms Industry

BACKGROUND

Mobile phone use and wireless digital technology has exploded over the past 10 years. The mobile phone companies currently use 2nd (2G) & 3rd (3G) generation wireless technology and we are now seeing the emergency services transferring to Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) for their national wireless communications network. More recently wireless broadband has further added to the demand for new sites and upgrades on existing towers and buildings. Whilst the mobile phone operators have now largely achieved the 90% network coverage required by their licences, more capacity is needed and more sites are required.

As many landlord and landowners will now appreciate, in the early days, very few surveyors understood the value of a mast site and solicitors generally failed to appreciate the dangers of the Telecommunications Act 1984. As a result a very large proportion of early telecoms documents are defective, either because rental levels are too low, or because they do not contain enough protection for the landlord. This is a very common problem.