The Annual Convention for the Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) begins today at the Omni Amelia Island Resort on Amelia Island, FL. A large focus at the meeting will be looking at how CCA members have evolved, and making sure the association is also moving forward to meet their needs, according to CCA President Tim Donovan.
“Hardly anyone is only siloed as a mobile wireless carrier anymore,” Donovan tells Inside Towers. “You need to be able to compete against nationwide providers. You need to diversify. You need to use all the technology available.”
That’s why CCA has planned sessions that are focused on fixed wireless access, for example. Sessions are planned with vendors that are using non-licensed spectrum for fixed wireless access, “and really looking at all these different ways that you can provide connectivity,” he said in an interview.
Asked if CCA members are similar to WISPA members (because they both serve rural areas), he said: “A lot of those lines are getting blurred, right, for everybody, when you hear some of the WISPs talking about that they’re building out fiber. We have multiple members announcing deals providing WISP-like access, which is something which makes a lot of sense. If you already have a tower and backhaul to it, then why wouldn’t you put up that [technology]?”
Donovan says the technology has evolved in such a way that it’s “not the fixed wireless access from 10 years ago. Those lines have blurred because we do have members that would fit that definition.” He emphasizes: “Our core members, or traditional members, have been those that have been focused first on mobility, but hardly anybody just does that anymore, because that’s not a way to provide a successful business plan.”
CCA members mostly serve small, rural markets. Some of its members represent nationwide carriers like T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) and EchoStar-owned DISH (NASDAQ: SATS). “But beyond that, a nationwide but facilities-based provider is really where we operate. So, people that are on the ground, that have equipment, have facilities, have employees in the states, to be able to differentiate there, it’s less a focus on kind of [the] MVNO side of the world, but more on the companies that are in the field, you know, rolling trucks, building out services to connect their communities.”
CCA members do tower work. Some of the smaller carriers are likely to still have their own towers and their own crews, for maintenance, according to Donovan. Some of that is due to the spare geographical areas CCA members serve. “It’s just harder in the winter to get the tower crew out in Nebraska or Wyoming than in Miami. But because we do feel that that challenge, that is industry-wide, of making sure there’s sufficient workforce for everything right now,” he says.
Registration opens at 2:30 p.m. today. The CCA Business Innovation Group meeting gets underway at 3 p.m. and the opening Dinner Reception begins at 5 p.m.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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