Steel In The Air, Inc

Steel In The Air, Inc Steel in the Air assists landowners municipalities, and venue owners with cell tower lease negotiations, valuation, infrastructure management & brokerage.

Ken Schmidt started Steel in the Air a decade ago. It was the first landowner-centric cell tower lease consultancy firm in the United States. Ken is well-respected in the industry for his ethical, no-nonsense approach to cellular lease negotiations and cellular asset valuation. Since 2004, SITA has been a trusted resource for private and public landowners, municipalities, investors, attorneys and educators.

Tower landowners β€” pay close attention if you've received a renegotiation letter or proposed lease amendment recently. 🚨...
06/15/2026

Tower landowners β€” pay close attention if you've received a renegotiation letter or proposed lease amendment recently. 🚨

We're seeing a tower company use renewals and extensions as cover to quietly renegotiate away its obligation to remove the tower at the end of the lease. The tower owner built it or acquired it. They and the carriers on the tower profited from it.

For years. And now, through whatever corporate reorganization got them to where they are today, they've apparently decided that the cost of cleaning up their own mess should fall on the landowner. That's not a negotiating position. That's just greed. And sending that kind of amendment to a landowner who doesn't know any better isn't sharp dealing β€” it's bad faith.

Let me be clear about something: there is no circumstance β€” none β€” where a landowner should agree to give up or limit a tower company's removal obligation. Not for a rent increase or tied to a rent descrease. Not for an extension. Not for anything they put on the table. The obligation to remove exists because you deserve to get your land back the way you gave it. Full stop.

πŸ‘‰ If you get an amendment that touches removal language in any way, don't negotiate it. Don't ask for something in return. Just don't sign it. Have a question about the removal language? Call us, and we will answer it for free, because nobody deserves to be taken advantage of.

And for any company proposing it, this is the exact kind of BS that encouraged me to get into the business of representing landowners. 4400 customers later, it feels good to know that it would have been far cheaper for you to just be decent human beings from the get-go.

At our virtual retreat this year, I gave the Steel in the Air team an unusual assignment. Each person was paired with a ...
06/11/2026

At our virtual retreat this year, I gave the Steel in the Air team an unusual assignment. Each person was paired with a colleague and asked to use AI to build a creative representation of that person β€” a trading card, action figure, poem, superhero profile, or short story. The only rules: keep it positive, focus on strengths, and light humor is fair game...

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At our April retreat, we asked each team member to use AI to build a creative profile of a colleague β€” a trading card, action figure, or poem. Here's what they made.

❓ How Should I Think About Edge Data Centers and Energy Storage At My Tower Sites?It is likely too early for most tower ...
06/10/2026

❓ How Should I Think About Edge Data Centers and Energy Storage At My Tower Sites?

It is likely too early for most tower owners to start looking for checks in your mailbox - but that doesn't mean you can start to plan for the possibility. Find out more in our Top 10 Questions Tower Owners Should Ask series: https://bit.ly/4t6jweR

Ugly Tower Contest entry of the month πŸ—Ό Does it look like a syringe, or is it some sort of puzzle? πŸ€”---Join our newslett...
06/08/2026

Ugly Tower Contest entry of the month πŸ—Ό Does it look like a syringe, or is it some sort of puzzle? πŸ€”

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Join our newsletter to get exclusive access to in-depth wireless analysis, breaking industry news, trends, and reports πŸ‘‰ https://bit.ly/3LP5w9i

WSJ Editorial Board says Charlie Ergen and EchoStar should have to honor its debts πŸ‘‰
06/04/2026

WSJ Editorial Board says Charlie Ergen and EchoStar should have to honor its debts πŸ‘‰

In today's The Wall Street Journal: WSJ Editorial Board says Charlie Ergen and EchoStar should have to honor its debts: https://lnkd.in/enRa_BTr Key points from the editorial: ➑️ Overriding public interest is getting scarce spectrum into the hands of companies that can put it to good use ➑️ ...

Last month, two major private cell tower companies with a similar credit rating went to Wall Street to raise capital. Wh...
06/03/2026

Last month, two major private cell tower companies with a similar credit rating went to Wall Street to raise capital. When it came time for the market to price the deals, investors treated them entirely differently. Here's why...

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Last month, two major private cell tower companies went to Wall Street to raise capital. According to data in the Houlihan Lokey Digital Infrastructure Update (Q1 2026), both companies received a BBB βˆ’ credit rating.

The May Newsletter is now live - here are the LinkedIn highlights from the previous month πŸ‘‰
06/02/2026

The May Newsletter is now live - here are the LinkedIn highlights from the previous month πŸ‘‰

Welcome to our LinkedIn breakdown for May. Here's what we talked about in the past month.

How many cell towers are there in the US? If this question causes you to lose sleep at night... We have the answer: http...
06/01/2026

How many cell towers are there in the US? If this question causes you to lose sleep at night... We have the answer: https://bit.ly/4lMKzK8. πŸ’‘

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Join our newsletter to get exclusive access to in-depth wireless analysis, breaking industry news, trends, and reports πŸ‘‰ https://bit.ly/3LP5w9i

How does AT&T lease sites?πŸ—ΌFirst, the radio frequency department and marketing department determine locations where a ne...
05/28/2026

How does AT&T lease sites?

πŸ—ΌFirst, the radio frequency department and marketing department determine locations where a new tower is needed.
πŸ—Ό AT&T will issue a search ring- a specific location with a distance attached.
πŸ—Ό Next, the agent will identify those properties in the search ring that meet local zoning regulations and where the landowner may be willing to enter into a lease.
πŸ—Ό Then they contact the landowners of the best properties and make inquiries.
πŸ—Ό If the landowner is interested, AT&T will submit a proposal to lease the property. The lease rate is based upon several factors...

Find them here:

Discover the latest AT&T cell tower lease rates and construction plans. Learn about the network expansion and leasing opportunities with AT&T and its partners.

Area residents are upset that there are anti-bird devices at the top of the tower, disrupting osprey nesting, but it's p...
05/26/2026

Area residents are upset that there are anti-bird devices at the top of the tower, disrupting osprey nesting, but it's perfectly legal to install them when the osprey isn’t nesting. Of course, if they were added during an active nesting season, that would be illegal.

We dealt with ospreys and towers frequently in Florida. There was one less-than-reputable tower developer in Florida who would send a crew out to climb the tower in the middle of the night to remove the nest rather than waiting until the end of nesting season. No bird was going to stop him, protected or not. ☹

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Neighbors say devices blocked an active osprey nest on NE 122nd Ave.

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Baldwinsville, NY
13027

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