ALHAMBRA, Calif. -- The gleaming white tower of the First Baptist Church rises more than 100 feet above a low-lying Southern California setting of stucco bungalows and strip malls.

According to the Whittier Daily News, that makes it a perfect spot for a wireless phone antenna.

The church's tower and its leadership have been coveted and courted respectively by wireless companies seeking to improve their coverage.

Pastor Lee Hamby said the church agreed to a five-year deal that will allow Cingular to place six 4 1/2-foot antennas on the steeple.

According to Martha Dias, a zoning specialist with Wireless Facilities, Inc., contracts such as First Baptist's bring between $800 to $1,500 a month in income and last as long as 25 to 30 years

Asked whether he faced a dilemma in deciding whether to place the conduits of telecommerce on the church's steeple, Pastor Hamby said simply, "What dilemma? It's just a piece of architecture. ... (T)here really is no spiritual significance to the tower."

As long as the antennae weren't unsightly, Hamby said, it was OK to mount them. Cingular, he said, was the only wireless company willing to pay more for a "stealth" design.

"We told them it has to be aesthetically pleasing," he said. "We don't want it to look like we've got things just tacked to our tower."

For churches, the cash from a long-term lease is usually worth a few bits of hardware inside their most visible symbol.

First Baptist is financially healthy, and the Cingular income represents less than 1 percent of its $700,000 annual budget.

"Churches like it because that's the way they can make extra revenue," Diaz said. "It's a business decision to accept this as a use."