A CEO panel made up of CCA carrier members highlighted varying degrees of interest in 5G and unique diversification efforts
SEATTLE – Regional and rural wireless carriers, which make up a bulk of the Competitive Carriers Association’s membership, have shown significant resiliency in a market that from the outside looks increasingly formidable.
Top executives from a handful of those carriers took to the stage at this week’s CCA Annual Convention to provide some insight into how they continue to compete in an increasingly complex market, with a strong notion that practicality is a key component to decision-making.
Panel members included Hu Meena, president and CEO of C Spire; Michael Prior, president and CEO at ATN International; Pat Riordan, president and CEO of Cellcom; and Slayton Stewart, CEO of Carolina West.
Panel moderator Susan Welsh De Grimaldo from Strategy Analytics, kicked off the session by asking the panel about their current focus areas for investment. Prior said ATNI is investing in areas to protect current revenue streams, including new use cases.
Riordan’s response was more traditional in that Cellcom is looking to invest in fiber, spectrum and network, but is also looking at ways to take expenses out of current operations. Riordan explained that one of those areas is tower leases, noting that most of those agreements have yearly cost escalators, and that at some point it may make better financial sense to look at new tower opportunities instead of continuing to maintain legacy lease agreements.
Stewart cited some frustration in the fact technology is advancing so rapidly in terms of network equipment that it is difficult for a smaller carrier to keep pace. He also noted smaller carriers need to keep pace with what their larger roaming partners are doing in terms of network deployments in order to maintain those roaming arrangements.
In terms of revenue diversification efforts, Cellcom may have that battle won with Riordan noting the carrier has moved into drone repair and coffee houses as part of an overall company effort to expand revenue streams outside traditional telecom markets.
In terms of their ability to follow technology moves, size differentials among the carriers on the panel had a lot to do with decision-making.
Meena highlighted some of C Spire’s work in terms of taking advantage of its fiber deployments to boost fixed and wireless broadband efforts, as well as the carrier’s recent move to open a data center geared toward offering cloud services to enterprise customers.
The Mississippi-based operator also recently conducted fixed wireless “5G” use cases with vendor partner Nokia that achieved network speeds up to 2.2 gigabits per second using spectrum in the 28 GHz band. Meena noted C Spire had picked up the spectrum assets 20 years ago and was now just able to find a use for the licenses.
In terms of 5G plans for the other carriers, Stewart said that with Carolina West just now getting toward the end of its planned LTE deployments, it is looking to perhaps recoup some of those costs first before jumping into a new network evolution.
Cellcom’s Riordan cited a more practical approach to the carrier’s network plans, claiming it instead just looks at advances as the “next thing” and not in terms of any numbered generation.
With a significant presence in rural areas – explained to be as sparse as five to 10 people per square mile, Prior noted ATNI is not quite yet seeing a use case for 5G, but that the carrier is in talks with vendors in terms of potential future plans.
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