WHEATON, Md.-Cell site construction during 1996 increased 50 percent from 4,743 sites in 1995 to 7,392 last year, according to Herschel Shosteck Associates Ltd.’s recent report Cellular Market Forecasts.
The report concludes the increased construction resulted from cellular carriers trying to build out their networks and improve their systems to meet the competition of new personal communications services networks.
“As a direct consequence, cellular will be able to provide better quality coverage than will be initially possible by PCS,” said Jane Zweig, senior vice president of the firm. “Our measurements of reception in Washington-Baltimore document that Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile and Cellular One were perceived as providing better than average reception than APC/Sprint Spectrum, the PCS operator, in December 1995, March 1996 and June 1996.
“However, this advantage will diminish over time as PCS networks build out.”
The report forecasts that cellular carriers will continue to construct 5,000 or more cell sites per year through 1998 and possibly beyond. And PCS providers will have to match that number in order to compete, said Zweig.
The study also indicates that investment per new subscriber is on the rise again after declining between 1992 and 1995, while revenue per subscriber is declining. In 1987, average monthly revenue per subscriber was $96.51, but by 1996, that figure had fallen to $48.27 per month.
“This decline is driven by two factors,” said Zweig. “First, each new tier of subscribers uses service less than preceding tiers. Second, since 1991, carriers have been reducing tariffs to stimulate subscriber growth, and, more recently, to counter PCS competition.”
