The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is in the process of auctioning off what is widely considered to be the best performing radio spectrum ever sold. Formerly used by analog television stations, this 700MHz spectrum auction has already received bids near
13 Billion dollars. The entire push toward digital (high definition) television was forced by the FCC and Congress, which made the TV stations vacate the spectrum by this time next year. In most markets, they have already made the transition, making the spectrum available.
When existing wireless operators buy new spectrum, it doesn't always end up as new tower sites. Often, they add new channels to existing sites and increase their capacity. It's great for wireless users, but not necessarily for property owners looking for a long-term tower tenant.
In this auction, however, there are some newcomers to the auction who do not provide wireless service yet. These recent market entrants will need to build a network from scratch, and that almost certainly will require new tower and rooftop sites. The most notable newcomer is Google. Google committed to spending at least 4.6 Billion dollars on one swath of spectrum, which reached its reserve price within the last 24 hours - it will sell.
All this means that it's very likely that the 200,000 wireless towers in the United States will have some friends starting next year. Maybe one will end up on your self-storage site.
towerguy
If you have an interest in learning more about who's bidding, and what's for sale, try this link
RCR Wireless News: First with carrier, distributor, network, handset and mobile content news. RCR News is a widely-read industry journal, and has some great detail on the auction.