Their (corporate) parents must be so very proud of them!
Just about 4 minutes ago, at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time the saga of Time Warner Cable and CBS entered its second month. Time Warner Cable still says they are taking the high road to hold down cable prices, and CBS still says that they want to be paid a fair price for the highest rated network.
Congress and the FCC have made noises reminding each side of its duty to the public, which has fallen on deaf ears.
At this point, CBS seems determined to let this stupidity continue to the start of the football season. They appear to be betting that once Time Warner Cable subscribers don’t get football, the will get another provider.
Personally, I don’t have the football gene, so it’s no big deal to me, but I do miss the CBS news programs line 60 Minutes, Sunday Morning, the local CBS new channels in L.A. (2 and 9).
I’ve said it before; and I’ll say it even louder now: More Pox, please! So far the pox I’ve tossed hasn’t hit home.
Oh, by the way, I spent a bit over an hour today waiting in line at Time Warner Cable office in Santa Monica. Why? To snatch up one of the DTV antennas they’re handing out for free.
Later this weekend, I’ll post here about the antenna, with pictures. Hold your breath, just like I’m holding mine for a resolution of the TIme Warner Cable v. CBS battle.
Jonathan
PS: It was about 80 degrees waiting in line at the TWC office. If I were in the marketing department at Dish, I’d be setting up free lemonade stands right outside of every Time Warner Cable office in L.A. “If Time Warner gives you lemons, take Dish Lemonade…and this sign up form.”
Their (corporate) parents must be so very proud of them!
As you may have heard, Time Warner Cable today started offering free over-the-air antennas to its victims of the Great CBS Blackout.
Just pop by one of their offices lickety-split and you can pick one up of those shiny new antennas was the gist of the announcement and ads.
That got me thinking!
I’m a Time Warner Cable victim of the great CBS blackout, so said to myself, “Self, why don’t you get in your car and drive on down to the Time Warner Cable office in Santa Monica and pick-up one of those dandy new free antenna!” Then I said to myself, “Great idea, Self!” Then we both got in the car and headed to Time Warner Cable’s office just a few miles away.
After waiting in the line at Time Warner Cables office, I found out (initially by overhearing a lovely mature woman expressing her, ah, great discontent) that Time Warner’s Santa Monica office ran through the three boxes of antennas by midday today. Moreover, nobody had any idea when more antennas might arrive.
The customer service representative, safety ensconced behind a plexiglass security wall, suggested that we should come back on Monday and maybe they’d have more antennas…or maybe not.
Way to go, Time Warner Cable! Way to gooooooooooo………
By the way, welcome to ‘Week Three’ of the Great CBS Blackout. The third week started about 2 hours ago here in L.A.
I’m going home to back a cake to celebrate this milestone of corporate concern for its customers and viewers.
A “casualty” clause in a lease is commonly included to provide a way of altering the terms of a lease or outright terminating a lease before its natural expiration if something bad happen.
Something like a fire.
Take a look below at the standard template language found in a very well-known carrier’s boilerplate agreement. After that, I’ll tear it apart for you, as a potential cell site landlord, to better understand what’s going on, and how it might come back to bite you.
CASUALTY. Landlord will provide notice to Tenant of any casualty or other harm affecting the Property within forty-eight (48) hours of the casualty or other harm. If any part of the Communication Facility or Property is damaged by casualty or other harm as to render the Premises unsuitable, in Tenant’s sole determination, then Tenant may terminate this Agreement by providing written notice to Landlord, which termination will be effective as of the date of such casualty or other harm. Upon such termination, Tenant will be entitled to collect all insurance proceeds payable to Tenant on account thereof and to be reimbursed for any prepaid Rent on a prorata basis. Landlord agrees to permit Tenant to place temporary transmission and reception facilities on the Property, but only until such time as Tenant is able to activate a replacement transmission facility at another location; notwithstanding the termination of this Agreement, such temporary facilities will be governed by all of the terms and conditions of this Agreement, including Rent. If Landlord or Tenant undertakes to rebuild or restore the Premises and/or the Communication Facility, as applicable, Landlord agrees to permit Tenant to place temporary transmission and reception facilities on the Property at no additional Rent until the reconstruction of the Premises and/or the Communication Facility is completed. If Landlord determines not to rebuild or restore the Premises, Landlord will notify Tenant of such determination within thirty (30) days after the casualty or other harm. If Landlord does not so notify Tenant, then Landlord will promptly rebuild or restore the Premises to substantially the same condition as existed before the casualty other harm. Landlord agrees that the Rent shall be abated until the Premises are rebuilt or restored, unless Tenant places temporary transmission and reception facilities on the Property.
Okay, now let’s rip this bad-boy paragraph apart and see what’s under the hood…
“Landlord will provide notice to Tenant of any casualty or other harm affecting the Property…” This sentence places an affirmative duty (a burden) on the landlord to notify the wireless carrier of “any casualty or other harm” affecting the property. So what qualifies as a casualty or other harm affecting the Property? Well, it might be a fire burning down the building, or earthquake, or airplane crashing onto the property, but those are all obvious. What about a toxic gas cloud from a tanker spill 3 miles away wafting over the Property? Yup. How about a small fire in a
“…within forty-eight (48) hours of the casualty or other harm.” Well, that’s 48 hours after ‘it’ happens, whatever ‘it’ is. If you are a landlord who does not live at the property, you might now become aware of the ‘it’ that happens on a Friday night at 7:30 p.m. until you come in on Monday morning. By this time you’ll be in breach of your duty to notify the tenant within 48 hours!
“If any part of the Communication Facility or Property is damaged by casualty or other harm as to render the Premises unsuitable, in Tenant’s sole determination, then Tenant may terminate this Agreement by providing written notice to Landlord, which termination will be effective as of the date of such casualty or other harm.”Okay, let’s break this into even smaller chunks:
“If any part of the Communication Facility…”which would mean the cell site, or any element of it…
“…or Property…”which is your property, upon which the cell site resides…
“…is damaged by casualty or other harm…” which, as we’ve seen above, is anything bad…
“…as to render the Premises unsuitable,…” Unsuitable? Perhaps they just don’t like the Premises anymore. ..
“…in Tenant’s sole determination…” which means that only the tenant gets to decide, and missing the magic word “reasonable.”
“…then Tenant may terminate this Agreement by providing written notice to Landlord,”… Okay, we’re outta here because we sent you a letter…
“…which termination will be effective as of the date of such casualty or other harm.”This allows your tenant to backdate the termination date to the date of the oops.
“Upon such termination, Tenant will be entitled to collect all insurance proceeds payable to Tenant on account thereof…” If your tenant is named as an additional insured on your fire policy, get who gets to collect.
“…and to be reimbursed for any prepaid Rent on a prorata basis.”So, you the tenant just paid you the day before the oops for the entire month, you get to refund all but one day’s rent back to your tenant.
“Landlord agrees to permit Tenant to place temporary transmission and reception facilities on the Property, but only until such time as Tenant is able to activate a replacement transmission facility at another location;…” Hold on, the cell site burned down and they terminated the lease, but they still get to bring a temporary cell site on your property? Yup. You got it. For how long? Good question! Since the lease is terminated, they get to stay for as long as they want, somewhere on your property.
“…notwithstanding the termination of this Agreement,…“ Read it this way: ‘even though the Lease is now terminated…’
This is a “casualty” under most cell site leases, even if the fire was caused by the tenant!
“…such temporary facilities will be governed by all of the terms and conditions of this Agreement, including Rent.”…it’s as if you are on a day-to-day agreement, which you cannot terminate, under the terms and conditions of the old lease.
“If Landlord or Tenant undertakes to rebuild or restore the Premises and/or the Communication Facility, as applicable, Landlord agrees to permit Tenant to place temporary transmission and reception facilities on the Property at no additional Rent until the reconstruction of the Premises and/or the Communication Facility is completed.”But if YOU or the tenant decides to rebuild or fix the cell site and your tenant does NOT terminate the lease, you agree to allow the tenant to bring a temporary cell site on your property…for no additional rent…while the fixing is taking place.
“If Landlord determines not to rebuild or restore the Premises, Landlord will notify Tenant of such determination within thirty (30) days after the casualty or other harm.”if you do not intend to fix their cell site, you have to tell them that within 30 days after the oops occurs. Do you think you’re going to have your insurance settlement nailed down in 30 days? Nope, me neither.
“If Landlord does not so notify Tenant, then Landlord will promptly rebuild or restore the Premises to substantially the same condition as existed before the casualty other harm.”Let’s just say that if you forget to notify the tenant within the 30 day window? Get who gets locked-in to fixing the damage? By the way, get who’s going to get stuck with the bill? Yeah, that’s right.
“Landlord agrees that the Rent shall be abated until the Premises are rebuilt or restored, unless Tenant places temporary transmission and reception facilities on the Property.” So if they don’t terminate, and they don’t bring a temporary cell site on the property, you get no rent while their smoldering remains litter your property.
So here’s the kicker: Think about the photograph just above of the burning cell tower. That fire was caused by a welder working on the tower at the direction of the tenant or subtenant. Under the language of the casualty clause you’ve just read, even if a fire (or other casualty) is caused by a tenant’s activities at a cell site…welding, for example…the tenant can still take advantage of all of the benefits of the casualty clause.
Now that you see how the standard cell lease casualty clause does nothing to protect the landlord, and everything to benefit the tenant (and only the tenant), you understand need to revise the casualty clause to limit it to apply to casualties not caused by or attributable to your tenant, and to strike portions of it altogether.
Like I said, don’t be a casualty of a wireless lease casualty clause. We can help you avoid this predicament.
Their (corporate) parents must be so very proud of them!
Now comes James Armstrong, Michal Pourtemour, Vatsana Bilavarn, individually, and on behalf of all others similar situated to sue Time Warner Cable for dropping CBS. Well, not really for dropping CBS, but for breach of contract, deceptive business practices, unjust enrichment, and the like.
If you would like to read all 36 pages of the complaint, filed last week, you can do so by CLICKING HERE.
The suit was filed through the law firm of Weintraub and Selth, APC, a 4-attorney bankruptcy law firm in West Los Angeles.
Their (corporate) parents must be so very proud of them!
Well, we’re about 1 1/2 weeks into the sandbox fight between the two bullies, Time Warner Cable and CBS. They continue their stupid fight, throwing sand on each other, but also throwing sand on everyone else chained to their sandbox.
CBdisengeniouS continues to black out its web content only to those unlucky enough to come in through a TWC IP address, regardless of whether the viewer subscribers to TW cable of some other video source.
TWC continues to disingenuously post billboard messages on selected CBS channels telling customers they are fighting to hold the cost of cable TV when we all know the history of cable TV rate increases consistently topping inflation, and then some. TWC’s next excessive rate increase will be a very interesting event.
No, Time Warner, Starz Family is not s substitute for CBS programming.
The FCC, who SHOULD be teaching both of the bullies a lesson upside their heads, has sternly asked them to quit fighting, suggesting that it might step in to break up the fight.
Class action lawsuits will flow into TWC as soon as the bullies stop their fight to relieve TWC of the money it continues to collect for services it continues not to provide.How destructive for all concerned.
Are you in the wireless tower industry? Are you a government employee dealing with wireless matters in your jurisdication? One of the most valuable (and amazingly cost-effective) wireless conferences you can attend are those put on by AGL Magazine. The next AGL day-long conference is in Chicago on September 19th.
The Chicago agenda as of this writing is:
8:30 a.m.
Opening Keynote –
“WiFi, DAS, & Smartphones in 21st Century Real Estate” – James Carlini, Certified Infrastructure Consultant
Sponsored by Amphenol GCS
9:00 a.m.
Site Acquisition: Where Will All the Wireless Go?
You have all heard the statistics on wireless growth, but where will all these antennas and nodes be located? This session will teach you how to meet the zoning challenges and take advantage of the opportunities in innovative antenna siting. Stay on top of the trends in siting macrocells, microcells and DAS, whether it is a greenfield development or on rooftops or on street furniture. Our panel of experts will fill you in on the best practices in siting on federal properties, churches and schools.
Bill Sills, Wilkerson Barker & Knauer
Deborah Hill, Hill Law Offices
Bob Stapleton, National Wireless Ventures
Tim Renaud, US Cellular
10:00 a.m.
Wireless Business Trends Roundtable
This session will scrutinize the business side of the wireless industry, from tower brokerage to Wall Street to carrier class Wi-Fi. Stay up to date on the critical factors that have an impact on our industry, whether it is the latest mergers, cash infusions or LTE deployment news. You will learn where the opportunities are to increase your profits, whether you own towers or integrate wireless systems.
Pat Tant, Solution Seven
Clayton Funk, Media Venture Partners
Ray Cagle, Clearwave
11:00 a.m.
LTE and the Art of Achieving and Maintaining Tower Integrity
With LTE systems rolling out at a furious pace, can proper equipment installations keep up? This session will teach you a wide range of best practices for deploying equipment on towers and keeping them in working order. Plus, keys for keeping tower climbers safe.
Dave Anthony, Shenandoah Tower Services
Greg Toback, Anritsu
John Celentano, Tessco
Scott Bohaychyk, Clearfield
Brandon Champman, Valmont Site Pro1
12:00 p.m.
Join us for Keynote Luncheon with
Jonathan Adelstein, President & Chief Executive Officer of PCIA – The Wireless Infrastructure Association
Co Sponsored by Concordia Group Ltd & Phillips Lytle
1:00pm
NATE PRESENTATIONWith Todd Schlekeway, Executive Director of NATE
1:15 p.m
Small Cell, DAS, Wi-Fi – the New Wireless Frontier
While it goes by different names – metrocell, picocell, microcell, DAS node and carrier-grade Wi-Fi – the result is the same, increased capacity and coverage enhancement. You will learn the latest technology trends in the deployment of multiple, smaller coverage area nodes. Additionally, you will learn the market drivers. All of which are critical to playing in this quickly evolving space.
Doug Dimitroff, Phillips Lytle
Jeffery Funderburg, AT&T
Dennis Rigney, SOLiD North America
Mark Kerschner, TE Connectivity
John Gilbert, Rudin Management Company,Inc.
2:15 p.m.
Break Sponsored by LCC LAW
2:30 p.m.
Vertical Markets: Fertile Ground for Small-cell Technology
Through case studies and analysis, learn about niche markets where small-cell technology will thrive. The healthcare space, hospitality, campuses and stadiums are high-profile ventures that feed our growing need for smart phones. Come hear how to overcome the challenges in these complex yet most lucrative environments.
Ali Sar, 123eWireless
Lorna Slott, AT&T
Greg Najjar, Sprint
Bob Butchko, RF Connect
3:30 p.m.
Closing/AGL announcements
You can register for the AGL conference (for only $95…yes Ninety-five bucks) here: http://agl-mag.com/agl-midwest-regional-conference/
To add icing to the cake, the day before there is an optional two hour “Tower Tech Session.” Here’s the registration link to the Tower Tech Session: http://agl-mag.com/tower-tech-training-chicago/
According to published reports flying today, Florida-based Global Tower Partners is on the block.
It looks like anyone with a spare $4B can snap up 16,000-ish sites around the world for an average of $250,000 per site.
If you have a lease with Global Tower Partners as your tenant, it is quite possible that the new buyer…whomever that is…will send you innocuous-looking documents to sign that will impact (and usually reduce) your rights as a Landlord. Look before you leap (sign), and talk with your wireless attorney before you jump.
Time-Out Warner (Time Warner) and CBdisgeniouS (CBS) continue into Day 5 of their reality show,
“How We Beat Up Your Viewers.”
When this is over, which may not be until September when Football Season begins, the cable industry will be far worse off in credibility (yes, it has some credibility now), and CBS will shift from the Tiffany Network to CLN (the “Cheap Lampshade Network”).
CBdisingenuouS is my new name for CBS. Okay, I’m really disappointed with CBS. As part of the battle with Time Warner Cable, CBdisingenuouS has elected to block web views of its programming by Time Warner internet subscribers. If you subscribe to a different internet provider, you can get the CBS programming on line.
Time Warner was right when it quoted TechCrunch, which first reported the CBdisingenuouS blockage.
How do I know this is true?
Well, at my home I use Time Warner for internet service. At my office I have two different internet providers, neither of which are TWC.
At home, CBdisingenuouS programming on line is blocked. At the office, CBdisingenuouS programming on line is available.
CBS, which had shed what now clearly appear to be crocodile tears over its fair share of our bloated TWC bills, has lowered itself to TWC’s level. So much for the Tiffany Network.
By the way, we’re now 5 hours into day 3 without CBdisingenuouS. Today, TWC was showing an old Eddie Murphy movie on the CBS channel here in L.A. Oddly, it was in a 3:4 format (no, note a 4:3 format…a 3:4 format).
Would someone please loosen the ropes that both of you have used on your subscribers/viewers? Thanks to both of you. Not.
The elusive and never-before photographed Mono-Scaffold wireless tower. Click to enlarge.
It is rare that I have the privilege of capturing a never-before documented wireless tower design. Yet fate has chosen to grace me by allowing me to find, in the wild, this most elusive of wireless tower designs…
…the Mono-Scaffold!
While hereto-now only hushed rumors of this rarest of tower designs have been uttered in the strictest of confidences between contract wireless engineers working for carriers, I am able to confirm with irrefutable evidence forthe international scientific and lay communities the first documented, photographed mono-scaffold site.
This mono-scaffold site, located in Malibu California on Pacific Coast Highway, forever quiets the popular speculation of the existence of this fabled design. It is true. It exists.
Having now proven the existence of a Mon0-Scaffold, I must now turn my attention to the most important follow-on query:
Is a Mono-Scaffold subject to Section 6409(a) of The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012?
A lessor question, but important in its own right:
Is a Mono-Scaffold is subject to EIA/TIA-222?
As is most often the case, one answer provokes several new questions. The expansion of knowledge continues.
You are lucky to live in the time during which the existence of the fabled Mono-Scaffold was proven as a fact.
If you wish to field-verify my findings, I encourage you to navigate…quickly…to N34.0394 W118.6717.
I urge you to hurry. There is no telling how long the Mono-Scaffold will remain in this one location.
