We live in a mobile world — the way we live and work is increasingly online. Think about this: in 2016 in North America, our smartphones, tablets, and mobile-enabled PCs consumed 1.8 Exabytes (approximately one billion Gigabytes) of data per month. Just one Exabyte of data is the equivalent of more than 4,000 times the information stored in the Library of Congress. By 2020, analysts expect wireless traffic to increase by a whopping 390 percent as a result of the explosion of connected devices and burgeoning Internet of Things. Across the country, mobile carriers are investing billions of collective dollars in their networks to meet that incredible demand and to deploy the next-generation of wireless technology known as 5G. But local hurdles threaten to delay or derail that innovation and investment, and we need national leadership to keep America’s wireless networks the envy of the world.
Our 5G future and all of the accompanying economic benefits are hung up by a patchwork of burdensome, costly, and inconsistent local siting requirements holding back the deployment of new infrastructure. Unless federal regulations keep pace, infrastructure costs and delays could slam the brakes on the investment and the innovation we all want to see in America’s future.
These next-generation networks are about more than just exciting new applications: they’re essential for American economic competitiveness. Each time our networks have gotten better—from 2G to 3G to 4G—the economy has grown. The move to 5G networks is expected to produce the biggest gains yet. One study estimates that as much as $275 billion in next-generation networks will be invested over the next seven years. Accenture estimates that $93 billion of that total will be spent on construction, with the rest allocated toward network equipment, engineering, and planning. Building these networks is expected to create up to three million jobs, encompassing approximately 50,000 jobs per year in construction alone. Qualcomm estimates that once these networks are in place, they will create 22 million jobs and produce up to $12.3 trillion of goods and services by 2035.
Unlike the current 4G technology, 5G will require a denser network of mostly smaller scale antennas and radios to handle this increased traffic. More specifically, the new networks will require hundreds of thousands of new cell-sites with a minimal footprint on new and existing utility poles, light poles, and on other structures like buildings. S&P Global Market Intelligence estimates that between 100,000 and 150,000 small cells will be constructed by the end of 2018, and that small cell deployments are expected to reach 455,000 by 2020 and nearly 800,000 by 2026. To accomplish this, today’s policies must promote physical broadband infrastructure deployment for mobile services of tomorrow.
Building a supporting structure or installing antennas and securing permission to deploy is complex, unpredictable, and expensive: carriers experience new, unanticipated requirements from redundant reviews by different parties, sometimes with surprise fees unrelated to review costs. All carriers—rural, regional, and nationwide—need permission from a multitude of federal agencies as well as state and local authorities. Deploying any structure or piece of equipment, even a small cell the size of a backpack can take months or years longer than anticipated and cost far more than expected. That impacts more than just a carrier’s bottom line. It also changes the calculus about where and how fast these services can be rolled out to consumers. Fees and delays mean fewer resources to bridge our digital divides and connect every American community.
There are reasons to be encouraged: the administration, the Federal Communications Commission, and Congress are all committed to removing some bureaucratic red tape to streamline these processes and make these networks a reality. Some steps, like finding common-sense reforms to modernize the historical review process that the Federal Communications Commission proposed today, could become a reality as soon as later this month. This is important progress. We urge policymakers to keep pushing forward and tackle the additional roadblocks frustrating the potential of 5G. Following last week’s announcement by the FCC, we are hopeful that Washington will work together on the reforms needed to deploy the mobile services of tomorrow.
Margaret McCarthy is the Executive Director of Mobile Future. Rebecca Murphy Thompson is the Executive Vice president & General Counsel of Competitive Carriers Association based in Washington, D.C.
