One of the most common strategies in high-efficiency crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells for the rear surface is the combination of a dielectric passivation with a point-like contact to the base. In such devices, the trade-off between surface passivation and ohmic losses determines the optimum distance between contacts or pitch. Given a certain pitch, the series resistance related to majority carrier flow through the base and the rear point-like contact (R-base) is commonly calculated a-priori and not crosschecked in finished devices, since typical techniques to measure series resistance lead to an unique value that includes all ohmic losses. In this work, we present a novel method to measure R-base using impedance spectroscopy (IS) analysis. The IS data at high frequencies allow to determine R-base due to the presence of the capacitor formed by the metal/dielectric/semiconductor structure that covers most of the rear surface. The method is validated by device simulations where the dependence of R-base on carrier injection, base resistivity and pitch are reproduced. Finally, R-base is measured on finished devices. As a result, a more accurate value of the contacted area is deduced which is a valuable information for further device optimization. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.