Telecommunications issues: goldmine or fool's gold?

Building owners are facing a forest of antenna and cabling issues as contemporary technology meets bricks and mortar.

Communities are facing the erection of large antennas to accommodate some of their own residents' desire for communication, while other neighbors are concerned about esthetics and health issues.

Not surprisingly, even the FCC is in the act and recently issued a ruling that is troubling to co-ops and condominiums in particular.

Wireless phone companies are parading around seeking sites at the same time owners are receiving solicitations from consultants who want to advise owners on what to do.

And while owners want to reap the rewards of a stable monthly stipend, they have to ensure they are making agreements that don't preclude future income.

There are tales of the first antenna company renting the entire rooftop and then happily making agreements with competitors, who pay them, and not the owner for the subleased space.

There are engineering and water worries, as each device can create a hole in the structure.

And the forest of rooftop and building - side electronics can include items ranging from small pocket-sized antennas to large satellite dishes, microwave relays and other indescribable items, all requiring storage room, wiring, electric power and space to bring the service or cabling through the building.

Unfortunately, there is also a limit to the capacity of risers to carry it all to and fro.

At the Technology Center at 55 Broad Street, there are seven separate telecommunications lines, a high speed copper T3 line and a category 5 copper line, two separate fiber optic cables, a satellite uplink and a downlink facility and a co-axial line pushing video - all crowded into the riser.

"We're now looking at some things including microwave," said John J. Gilbert, executive vice president and COO of Rudin Management Co and chief technology officer at 55 Broad. "The key thing for an owner is to anticipate a tenant's need and meet them before the tenant asks for it."

Gilbert says along with his tenant computer firms and the financial firms, the entertainment and music industry companies are now "bandwidth hungry."

Bandwidth, he explained, is the size of the "pipe": the capacity of the wiring of any one particular building. "As the world goes towards 30 frames a second real time video, Bandwidth becomes an important commodity," he said.

For some rental buildings, the telecommunication issue may simply be tied to whether or not a company can use roof space to place an antenna and some storage room in the basement for the supporting equipment - and pay the owner a fee of around $500 to $1,000 a month to do so.

Michael Printz, the Rent Stabilization Association director of sales and marketing, advises obtaining escalator clauses to keep pace with inflation or cover the cost of business. He also says companies should reserve the right to terminate the contract for non-payment of rent, reserving the right to remove the tenant's equipment if he does not remove it after you have delivered a written request for removal.

"You may also need a clause indemnifying yon against any lability from disgruntled users whose service is interrupted due to your termination of the contract or removal of the equipment," said Printz.

But even in rental buildings, communications issues are complicated by space constraints, off-site ownership and lack of knowledge as to what is available at what cost.

Owner Gerald Pindus, president of Ted-Pin Realty, says he finally broke off talks with a wireless cable company that was going to pay him a percentage of its collections. He didn't like the way they wanted to wire the building.

"You don't want them to wire outside because it looks unattractive, and then wiring inside, they have to run molding, which is another set of molding trader the cable company's molding," he explained.

Pindus also found that in the outer boroughs, cable operators would come in and offer supers free cable to let them wire buildings for a $1 per building fee, thus going around the owner's negotiated deal with another supplier. While owners can challenge the fee, they have to apply to the New York State Commission on Cable TV within a short time frame.

If an owner cuts a negotiated deal with an antenna company, they will usually put a dedicated electric meter. But when it came to cable operators, many tapped into the building's electricity to run boosters and junction boxes without permission. Only when caught would they install their own meter.

To take some of the angst out of access, a legion of consultants has sprung up, sometimes pocketing an on-going fee for their services.

Printz says some owners may view the signing of a contract with one service provider as new-found income that utilizes an underutilized resource.

"But if it's suitable for one provider, it could be suitable for multiple providers," he said. "Owners should maximize the revenue by either finding a third party rooftop manager whose only goal and compensation comes from maximizing rooftop space, or do it themselves."

One such company is CS Technologies of New Jersey, an engineering firm that has consulted for the service providers and is now doing the same for building owners.

"A lot of commercial owners are getting bombarded, said Adam E. Krupp of CS Technologies. "'Hi, let us come in, we'll put in a fiber loop.' Landlords are coming to us because they don't know what they are doing."

CS Technologies will examine the proposals and help the owner make choices that are best for the building and the tenant mix.

"We've done agreements where there hasn't been an attorney, and others where we'll look at the business points and the attorneys will look at the language or the inhouse people will read through the agreements," Krupp said.

Providers Are a Mix

Some of the providers seeking sites include Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR) or Enhanced Specialized Mobile Radio (ESMR) that provides service for vehicles and their business, paging operations, and fixed wireless services. This includes companies offering point-to-point wireless that bypasses local telephone companies and uses satellites and satellite dishes.

Krupp's company will also help cull through the companies seeking antenna sites. That local market includes AT&T Wireless, NYNEX Mobile and Bell Atlantic.

Nextwave, Sprint Spectrum and Omnipoint have the local personal communications systems or PCS that involve a different kind of antenna to blanket the metro area.

They paid $994 million, $442 million and $347 million respectively for their FCC licenses - and Omnipoint, expected to come on-line in November with promotional pricing lower than the current cellular tabs - has a few week's head start due to pioneer" technology that allows for higher - speed data transfer.

The PCS systems are digitalized and have a clearer signal than the now-common scratchy and often busy cellular phones. The PCS systems can also serve more customers per site.

"They've invested so much money they have to get it back," explained David E. Bronston, an attorney who is of counsel with Lowenthal Landau Fischer & Bring, and who represents owners trying to sift through the paperwork and has also represented Sprint.

"These companies are coming and they need to build the networks out through the boroughs. But first they will build where the subscribers are," he said.

PCS generally uses less power and has smaller cells, while its antennas tend to be lower down. "They are looking at marquees and signage and the city has been approached about using its light poles," said Bronston, former general counsel to the New York City Dept. of Information Technology and Telecommunications.

Bronston says companies choose sites based on zoning maps and advice from company engineers. "As long as it's the right height and the right zoning, they will seek you out," he said.

The Rent Stabilization Association is putting together an inventory of building owners who are interested in having their buildings be considered as cell sites.

One of the newer services that involves inside wiring for building owners is Local Exchange Carrier, or Lex service, for in - building phone systems - a product being pushed at commercial owners.

"Every building doesn't need ten carriers," said Krupp. "Who do you pick? People are feeling comfortable with NYNEX, MFS, PCG and MCI Metro because they are the recognized ones in the area."

Communications companies are typically offering five-year deals for roof space with several renewal options at the carrier's option. "So you can be looking at a 20-year lease," noted Bronston. "What you do with one will set a precedent for the others."

Gilbert says owners have to be careful as to "what rights you give or don't give to a specific company."

"It's incumbent upon every owner to at the very least educate themselves to understand the new language so they can have intelligent conversations," he said.

Health Concerns

Those conversations often stray to health effects, which still concern many people. Everyone interviewed for the article claimed the systems all meet FCC guidelines and do not present hazards.

"As the power needed [for the newer technologies] is less, the radio frequency emissions concerns are going to be less and less of an issue," said Printz.

Health concerns and vocal community opposition to tall suburban antenna towers prompted Greenburgh manager Paul Feiner to find a way to comply with Federal access mandates. He appointed a committee of the most vocal opponents to create a law that would fairly provide access to communications companies and is now expected to become a model law for other small communities.

The citizens came up with a tiered system that favors commercial sites first. If those aren't good enough, antenna companies can pick another site, but have to explain each step to the zoning board. Residential sites would be next on the list, and then sites not within 350 feet of schools, day care centers, playgrounds and health care facilities.

Ten percent of the fees obtained by the town will be escrowed to provide for emissions monitoring.

As owners seek to make use of their rooftops, building risers and other areas, they will have to be careful about what they are doing.

"The owner should not forget their base business: to rent space to commercial and residential tenants," said Gilbert. "They're certainly not a goldmine."

He ended with a warning based on his father's advice: "If someone presents you with a situation that's too good to be true, it probably is."