NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association, has been sounding the alarm for a while about the effects of lower pay from carriers to its members for tower work. Now, the Brattle Group has released a report commissioned by NATE that puts numbers to paper of what’s been happening in the infrastructure industry.
Titled “Market Failure in the Wireless Communications Infrastructure Service Industry,” the report examines what its writers call “structural failures” in the U.S. wireless infrastructure services industry—specifically within the tower climbing and construction sector—and warns of long-term risks to national security, public safety, and wireless innovation.
According to the Brattle Group, a survey of NATE members showed:
- More than 80 percent of contractors report that pricing in current MNO contract matrices fails to cover basic operating costs.
- 89 percent of contractors report increased costs to manage customer materials.
- 96 percent say their contracts do not account for site-specific factors like terrain, weather, or local labor markets.
- The report characterizes the relationship between MNOs and contractors as what it calls “a classic monopsony”—where a few dominant buyers suppress compensation across a highly fragmented supply chain.
The report warns that this imbalance not only jeopardizes contractor viability but also threatens to weaken the nation’s wireless infrastructure by discouraging workforce retention, stifling innovation, and creating systemic inefficiencies.
NATE President/CEO Todd Schlekeway told reporters the association began to notice in the last two membership renewal cycles “a disturbing trend.” Several companies let the association know they were not renewing membership, often because they were leaving the business over pricing issues.
NATE board member Craig Snyder, who recently retired as founder and CEO of VIKOR, and is now Chairman of the Board, said the pricing inequities began in about 2020, and grew over time. Contactors used to tell the carriers how much time and money a job should cost, they said. But that formula got flipped to more of a “take it or leave it” situation.
Snyder described the Matrix pricing the big 3 began using. The pay to tower contractors has dropped about 20 to 35 percent. At the same time, inflation has increased over 23 percent since 2020. The money being paid to the tower contractors “doesn’t take into account the scope of work has become more complex. Our services are now harder to perform and take” a higher skillset, he said.
Schlekeway said NATE has good relationships with the big 3 carriers and cites the recent framework agreements with Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) concerning these workforce conditions. NATE is still in negotiations with AT&T (NYSE: T) , which started later than the other two carriers.
Asked about the timing of the report, Schlekeway said NATE told the big 3 about the report ahead of its release. “We believe every C-suite needs to read this multiple times so the proper changes can be made,” he said.
Schlekeway said the carriers and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr wanted to see data to back up what NATE’s been telling them about the pay situation and workforce conditions. NATE believes this report does that.
Schlekeway said the report “clearly validates what our member companies have long experienced on the ground: a market distorted by monopsony power, where the economic structure is broken and unsustainable. NATE will be sharing these findings with federal government agencies and Congressional stakeholders” that have oversight of the industry “in the coming weeks to continue to educate policymakers and drive urgently needed reforms.”
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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