Amidst a rapidly evolving communications marketplace, the Competitive Carriers Association has no shortage of issues on its plate in Washington, D.C. The trade group, which has represented regional and national wireless carriers since 1992, says it is the nation’s leading association for competitive communications services providers across the country. While Verizon and AT&T are not members, CCA’s ranks include T-Mobile and Boost Mobile, as well as dozens of rural and regional carriers.
In 2023, the organization underwent a leadership transition with Tim Donovan officially stepping into the role of President & CEO. With more than a decade of experience in the wireless industry, Donovan earlier led day-to-day Congressional advocacy for CCA and worked in government affairs at the Direct Marketing Association.
What are the top issues CCA is advocating for on the Hill and at the FCC this year?
There’s a lot going on up on the Hill, at the FCC, and in the courts. One issue that affects all our members and the nationwide telecommunications system is the ongoing focus on the Universal Service Fund. We participated in the Supreme Court hearing in March, and we expect a decision from the court any day now. It’s also an issue on Capitol Hill with the bipartisan Universal Service Fund (USF) Working Group, as well as chairman Ted Cruz’s reform efforts. The USF stretches over to the FCC, which last year adopted an update to a proposed 5G fund that would create a $9 billion program to help make sure there’s 5G connectivity everywhere in the country.
Then-Commissioner [Brendan] Carr was the lone dissenting vote on that item last year and we’ve been talking with now-Chairman Carr about potential updates to that program. CCA has litigation on a couple of reconsideration petitions to implement some fixes to make sure it’s as effective as possible.
We are also very engaged with restoring the FCC’s spectrum auction authority – that’s a piece of President Trump’s ongoing One Big Beautiful Bill Act that has passed the House and is pending consideration in the Senate. It directs auctioning off at least 600 MHz of spectrum to help fuel wireless growth, per the current House version. That’s good for the carriers and the industry. Anyone reading Inside Towers should cheer on restoring the FCC auction authority. Meanwhile at the FCC, [we’re] continuing the march towards the auction of AWS-3 spectrum licenses that was required in the National Defense Authorization Act that passed late last year. This includes looking at infrastructure siting and programs. In addition, there are changes coming to the BEAD program and we’re looking at opportunities to use that funding program to help fix some of the permitting challenges that could delay or make it more expensive to deploy both fixed and wireless services. So, there’s a lot to keep us busy as we’re moving forward.
Let’s shift the conversation to your membership at CCA. How have members evolved and diversified, and how are the different ways carriers provide connectivity blurring?
That is a constantly changing aspect of our industry right now, and an exciting space. When CCA was founded in 1992 by nine rural wireless carriers, the focus was on rural mobile coverage. While that focus remains among the dozens of operators that have since joined, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who is only a mobile carrier these days. There’s been convergence across the industry, and the CCA members that historically provided mobile service are also providing fixed service – both fixed wireless as well as with wires and fiber in some places, which makes sense. If you are already running fiber to a tower, then you’re in a community, and you can build that out to others as well. The CCA carriers are a little more unique in that many of them still own their own towers and build and service them. The tower segment is another way they’ve been able to diversify. And frankly, that’s become necessary as the industry has matured, roaming revenue has declined and diversifying and embracing convergence has become a way to maximize the business plan.
A new study titled “The 5G Promise Falls Short of Reality: Examining Economic Impact Claims” concludes there is no evidence that 5G deployment has delivered promised economic benefits, such as improved employment, wages, business growth, personal income, or GDP. How do you respond to that?
There was a lot of initial hype in the rollout of 5G. But we are still, especially from a rural carrier standpoint, early in 5G deployment. Many of our members are still working on upgrading to 5G and it’s important to make a distinction between the non-standalone 5G networks that rely on the 4G core for a lot of the operation, from standalone 5G networks that unlock some of the promised services. We do have carriers that are getting to standalone wireless, and that’s opening up some of these opportunities. But it’s still early in the game for 5G and far too early to conclude it’s been a bust. 5G does allow for more efficient use of spectrum, which is increasingly necessary, as we noted, without auction authority and without new bands coming online. We have also seen success in fixed wireless access using 5G and there still is a lot of interest in what can happen as you move to a standalone network. Just recently, USCellular announced that they were able to launch network slicing, something T-Mobile has already been using. These are some of the 5G services that have been promised but aren’t unlocked until you get to that standalone network. We are seeing new applications rolling out and a lot of potential as we continue to integrate artificial intelligence and augmented reality into networks. We’re also seeing more and more industrial applications that are picking 5G over other technologies because of its security characteristics and the handoff between access points. There’s a lot more to come on 5G and it’s far too soon to pass judgment that it hasn’t delivered on its promise.
By Paul Heine, Inside Towers Contributing Analyst
Paul Heine has covered radio/audio, media and marketing since 1985. He has held senior editorial management positions at Inside Radio, Radio & Records, Billboard Radio Monitor and the Friday Morning Quarterback (FMQB). Heine has also reported and analyzed media news and trends for Adweek, Mediaweek, Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter; appeared on “Today” and Fox News; and has been quoted in the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and other publications. He began his career in on-air and programming positions at radio stations in Buffalo and Rochester, NY.
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