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By Josh Huff, Scott Kisting, and Michelle Kang of Telecommuncations Industry Foundation
How quickly the world changes; imagine a world where:
- A child falls from a jungle gym, isn’t breathing, and someone needs to find a landline to call for help.
- Soldiers deployed overseas long to receive hand-written letters with the hope of photos as a primary means to communicate with family.
- Hikers lost in a national park desperately seek some means to communicate their location with the world.
- A young woman helping her family run a farm yearns to also study engineering, but the college campus is 200 miles away.
This was our society in the 1990’s and prior. The 1990’s saw several advances to our society; the PalmPilot, Nokia 3110 mobile handset (the first Nokia handset with a Navi-Key, or D-Pad), and of course, the McFlurry. Thanks to the telecommunications industry we have shifted from a society dependent upon landlines for voice-only communication to a society that has the ability to FaceTime family, learn how to change a flat tire on YouTube, draft documents, and search the internet from the palm of our hands, anywhere in the world. The telecommunications industry has made the world smaller by enabling us to communicate in ways that are the stuff of science fiction in the past. Unfortunately, there are still Americans whose means of communication still resemble that from the 1990’s.
Reflect back for a moment, if you will, and remember what you paid for your cell phone bill 25 years ago (if you even had one)? According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, you paid 50 percent MORE in 1997 than you do today (adjusted for inflation). Not to mention, in 1997 you were limited to voice calls. So, while prices have dropped, usage is exponentially higher and consumer expectation is wireless coverage at every location. Why is that? The answer is that telecommunications service is no longer a luxury; it is an essential service like water, electric, and emergency services. In fact, these other essential services are sometimes dependent upon wireless telecommunications networks to function (e.g., emergency services personnel use wireless networks to communicate in real time when responding to an incident).
The reality is that broadband services and wireless telecommunications have become the backbone of how our society functions; it is the engine that drives our modern world. But even with the social and economic impacts of wireless telecommunications, it has become so embedded in everything that we do that we don’t give it a passing thought. Consider what the COVID-19 pandemic would have been like without modern wireless and video telecommunications; the impacts to the economy would have been even more debilitating. Moreover, the inability to maintain personal connections and engagement with family would have led to an even sharper decline in mental health.
Returning to the issue; how do we expand broadband capabilities to keep pace with the ever-increasing demand and ensure rural and underserved communities have access to reliable broadband solutions? Removing regulatory overreach and efficiently distributing available funding are key. The current regulatory culture in many cases does not treat telecommunications as an essential service, generally speaking. Additional burdens are placed on telecommunications infrastructure that are above and beyond that of other structures such as buildings, water tanks, and bridges. These burdens are primarily derived from the mistaken belief that telecommunications structures (such as the self-support towers and monopoles you commonly see on your drive to the office) pose a heightened risk to public safety.
Not only are telecommunications structures regulated by the same codes and standards as buildings, but due to the rapid advances in technology, telecommunications structures undergo more frequent structural evaluations and maintenance assessments by licensed professional engineers than most other infrastructure.
Developing more capable broadband solutions can also be achieved through the proper dispensation of grants and funds available for telecommunications infrastructure. Of chief concern is the disbursement of funds from the Build America, Buy America Act (BABAA) which was part of the historic $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) signed into law on November 15, 2021. This bill has the potential to raise the bar for everyone in America if these resources are utilized in an efficacious manner.
The measured approach necessarily involves communicating with people who are directly involved in supporting and maintaining telecommunications infrastructure. Unfortunately, there appears to be a disconnect in the pathway to deploy this funding versus how broadband expansion will be achieved. For example, the majority of wireless equipment is produced outside of America and the BABAA restricts the purchase of such equipment. Additionally, broadband deployment considerations under the IIJA have also heavily emphasized fiber as the primary solution with little effective consideration for wireless infrastructure. The hard truth is that fiber direct solutions do not work everywhere; it is a poor use of funds and will not achieve the goals of the IIJA.
While there are only minor functionality differences between fiber and wireless solutions, there are considerable differences in time to deployment and cost. For instance, building-out fiber networks in Montana would be exceedingly more expensive than deploying increased wireless infrastructure in the area; all while providing comparable broadband access to rural communities.
In summary, stakeholders in the telecommunications industry are concerned that the regulations surrounding the dissemination of IIJA (broadband) funding are out of touch with what it will take to achieve the outcome they are aiming for. The wireless industry stands ready to expand America’s telecommunications infrastructure and ensure that rural and underserved communities have access to sufficient broadband technology. Let the experts of the telecommunications industry determine how to handle building and deploying the most reliable broadband network for America.
1 Statistic courtesy of in2013dollars.com, “According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, prices for wireless telephone services are 51.35 percent lower in 2023 versus 1997 (a $25.67 difference in value). Between 1997 and 2023: cell service experienced an average inflation rate of -2.73 percent per year.”
2 See ‘Reliability of Telecommunications Structures’, a White Paper by the Telecommunications Industry Foundation.
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