T-Mobile Hangs Up

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Editor’s Note: This article was revised on October 18. A correction appears at the bottom of this page.

T-Mobile has formally notified the Town of Weston that it will discontinue operations on the main cellular tower at the municipal campus and remove its equipment, according to a statement issued on Thursday by First Selectwoman Samantha Nestor.

The company’s decision comes after the Town rejected T-Mobile’s proposed terms and the carrier rejected Town counters.

According to the statement, T-Mobile offered a lease rate of $55,000, which is 39 percent less than the roughly $89,000 AT&T and Verizon have each agreed to pay.

The First Selectwoman’s statement can be viewed here.

In a followup, Ms. Nestor said the Board of Selectmen had reached consensus that the Town “might be willing to go a little below the average” paid by other carriers, but T-Mobile’s rent should “align with the market” and not unduly forfeit revenue.

Ms. Nestor said the Town is “ready to negotiate and willing to be flexible” on back rent. She said T-Mobile had continued operating on the tower well into 2025 but has not paid rent since the end of last year.

Other terms proposed by T-Mobile were stumbling blocks, “skewed heavily towards T-Mobile,” said the first selectwoman, and that the company was “unwilling to discuss them.”

These included the length of the lease (five years, as opposed to the 15 agreed by the other carriers), no guarantee on a five-year renewal option, a lesser annual rent escalation, no late payment or engineering reimbursement fees, and the ability to expand or add equipment without a rent adjustment.

In addition, Ms. Nestor said T-Mobile, unlike Verizon and AT&T, insisted on the right to terminate the lease with or without cause and to assign rights to other companies, affiliated or not, only upon written notice to the Town.

Disruption a test?

Ms. Nestor’s statement says a T-Mobile representative now claims that the sudden shutoff of service was actually a test to see if Weston could be covered by only operating on the transfer station tower. The representative also reportedly claimed that this test indicated 80 percent of the town could be served that way.

At press time, we are unable to verify either claim.

“The Town remains open to further dialogue with T-Mobile should they change their position in the future,” said Ms. Nestor, while noting that at least for now, “it appears as if the T-Mobile service interruption will be permanent.”

Correction: The original edition of this article contained errors about lease proposals and terms. We reported that the Town had offered a $55,000 annual rent, when in fact that amount was proposed by T-Mobile. We also had it that the Town proposed terms more lenient than those agreed by other carriers. In fact, as reflected in this edition, those terms were proposed by T-Mobile. We regret these errors.