What’s The Plan?

Meredith Attwell Baker, President & CEO, CTIA-The Wireless Association, spoke last week at the National Telecommunications & Information Administration’s International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies in Boulder, Colorado. Baker stressed that there just aren’t enough resources. “Mobile broadband demand cannot be met by improved spectral efficiency alone, more towers and more wireless infrastructure can never be enough, and AWS-3 and the incentive auction will not suffice,” Baker explained. “We already lead the world in spectral efficiency. The U.S. has the third lowest amount of spectrum dedicated to LTE. German operators have 26 times more spectrum per subscriber. While infrastructure will always help, we can’t just ‘build’ our way out of a six-fold increase of mobile traffic. We forget that AWS-3 represents only 13 percent of the government’s own conservative spectrum goal of 500 MHz.” Another important point made was that there is no plan beyond 2020. “The practical reality is that five years ago, the Administration formed a ten-year plan for mobile growth. While we’re making progress toward that 500 MHz, we have much more to do. We have no plan beyond 2020 to accommodate mobile growth, and the closer we get, the more daunting the timeline looks. Existing systems need to be relocated or retuned, that alone takes years and billions of dollars.” View Baker’s entire speech here.