SteepleCom - Antenna Agreement
| New England Conference in conjunction with... | |
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Common Thoughts & Concerns Background & Recommendation SteepleCom Personnel Feature Story |
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| The New England Conference has entered an agreement with SteepleCom, LLC of Ashby, Massachusetts. In accordance with the agreement, all New England conference churches have the opportunity to receive consideration to be the site for the location of wireless communication antennas in return for a monthly payment from the wireless company or companies.
Here is how this works: SteepleCom maintains a list of building addresses for churches in the New England Conference. These addresses are made available to Cingular, Sprint, T-Mobile, and other wireless companies which are searching for appropriate sites for wireless antennas. Companies interested in a particular site will contact SteepleCom, which will contact the church to ascertain interests. If the church wishes to pursue the interest, SteepleCom will act as the agent for the church. The property will be evaluated to see if the facility is appropriate and if the installation can be done without disturbing the look and function of the church. If both the church and the wireless company wish to continue, SteepleCom will represent the church in accordance with the master agreement with the New England Conference. Among the concerns of SteepleCom will be: that the church gets paid a fair amount for the arrangement that the church would still be available for additional installations if that possibility should occur that the agreement include periodic increases in the money paid the church that the church not get involved in a detrimental or limiting agreement that tax considerations be fully covered SteepleCom will also contribute a portion of the funds back to the New England Conference.What you need to do: Nothing to start with - your New England Conference church is on the master list. If a wireless company is interested in your location, you will get a call from SteepleCom. You can then begin the discussion with them to see if you want to pursue the possibilities If you wish, you might have a discussion now in your church to see if you would be interested in having antennas inside your steeple in return for a monthly check. Then, if you receive a call, you'll be ready to respond. If you already you know you would like your church considered, feel free to contact SteepleCom and let them know.New England Conference |
Note the following:
Not long ago, a certain church tried to market their steeple on its own, but didn't know where to begin. The church approached members of the SteepleCom team and asked for help. The end result was that through our professional services, this three-hundred member congregation with an annual budget of $198,000, became the host of a fully maximized communications site, with three different carriers, realizing just shy of $75,000 a year in additional revenue! We believe there are many other churches that stand to benefit from this same kind of arrangement. Since the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, there has been an explosion in the growth of cell phones and other wireless communications applications. This has resulted in the construction of many "sites" along roadways and in population centers to accommodate the many different service providers. Now that the carriers' initial build-outs have been completed, there are many opportunities that exist to develop new sites in underserved / rural markets as well as to develop filler sites to handle holes in coverage and offload traffic from oversubscribed sites. Regulation of the location of sites has been left up to municipal governments. One of the problems local officials face is that, according to current legislation, they must grant a carrier a permit if the carrier can demonstrate a need for a new antennae array. Axiomatically, there will forevermore be resistance from some members of every community that they do not want any more towers in their town. This creates an opportunity for churches to offer space in their steeple in return for financial consideration, and thus create a very nice win-win-win situation for everyone: churches receive a stream of income, wireless companies increase their coverage, and communities avoid the proliferation of unsightly towers. Why do churches need professional help? Churches are looked upon by site selectors as "easy pickings" Churches are usually not aware of their market value Churches do not usually have the proper technical expertise Churches usually do not have experience in these types of negotiations Once a site has been identified, carriers usually want to secure the site in a timely fashion; monthly board meetings don't lend themselves to expediency Someone needs to be on top of industry trends, new technologies and the integrity of the new generation of service providers This is just a complicated issue! It is easy to say "Yes!" to money, yet that is only one of many things that needs to be addressed in this unique situation |