The Legal Basis of Telecom Tower Leasing
The leasing of telecommunications masts and towers in Georgia rests on two legal registers: on the one hand, the general rules of civil-law contracts, and on the other, the special norms of the Law on Electronic Communications. Under that law, authorization means the registration by the Georgian National Communications Commission of the activity of a person who provides public electronic communications networks and/or services. An authorized person is any entrepreneurial entity, as well as any non-entrepreneurial legal entity, registered by the Commission and acting as an electronic communications network operator or service provider.
The placement of a mast and the installation of equipment on it is therefore not merely a private arrangement with the owner of the land or the structure: it is directly connected to the authorized person’s status and to its obligations before the Commission. A tower lease agreement must in this context be aligned both with civil rules and with communications regulation, so that the contractual structure does not conflict with the regulatory duties of the operator.