Spectrum, Tower Siting & Antennas  

CTIA Position:

CTIA-The Wireless Association® believes that the U.S. must identify and allocate additional licensed spectrum for commercial wireless use in order to meet the growing demand by consumers and businesses for mobile wireless broadband services. 

Spectrum is the backbone of the wireless industry – without it, the applications, speed, devices and other innovations of the wireless ecosystem could be in jeopardy.  Even though the U.S. is the world's most efficient commercial spectrum user, the current rate of industry growth and consumer demand for wireless broadband will quickly outpace carriers' network capacity. Each year, wireless carriers are investing billions of dollars to meet rapidly growing consumer demand. 

Recognizing the importance of spectrum to the mobile broadband ecosystem, the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) National Broadband Plan (NBP), released in March 2010, called for the allocation of 500 MHz of additional spectrum for the wireless industry. The NBP calls for 300 MHz of this spectrum to be made available within five years. In June 2010, President Barack Obama issued a memorandum in support of the NBP's spectrum goals. CTIA supports these announcements, which will enhance our ability to continue to provide and expand Americans' access to broadband anywhere and anytime. 

CTIA also supports the Radio Spectrum Inventory Act (S. 649) and its companion bill (H.R. 3125), which would require an inventory of radio spectrum bands managed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the FCC. In April 2010, H.R. 3125 passed the House. Identifying where additional spectrum can be relocated for commercial wireless use is the first step in designating the valuable spectrum the wireless industry needs in order to continue to meet consumer's increasing demand. 

While securing more spectrum is vital to the wireless ecosystem, adding cell tower sites is also crucial to carrier networks to ensure increased capacity and coverage, decreased network load and enhanced spectral efficiency. In November 2009, the FCC adopted a declaratory ruling which set a "shot clock" (90 days for collocation and 150 days for new tower construction) for local zoning authorities to act on tower siting requests. If local zoning authorities do not meet the time frames, they will be presumed to have "failed to act" and tower applicants' have the right to appeal to the courts for action. In addition, a zoning authority may not deny an application filed by one provider based on the presence of another wireless provider in a given area.

Key Points:

• Americans Have Clearly Demonstrated a Demand for Mobility. Over the last decade, wireless subscribership has risen, from 55 million in 1997 to more than 285 million today. While the number of wireless voice subscribers has been growing quickly, the number of wireless broadband users is expanding even more dramatically. Currently, more than 78 percent of the wireless devices in America are mobile broadband capable. According to the FCC, more than 92 percent of Americans live in areas with access to at least one 3G wireless broadband service provider. The latest FCC data for high-speed subscribership showed that more consumers have adopted wireless broadband between 2005 and 2008 than DSL and cable combined. Increasingly, Americans are proving the concept of a "third pipe to the home" has been surpassed by demand for "broadband to the person"—ubiquitous broadband availability for consumers wherever they are, whenever they want access to information.
• America is on the Verge of a Spectrum Crisis. Mobile broadband usage rates are accelerating at breakneck speeds. FCC data shows that since 2005, mobile wireless providers have been the fastest-growing providers of both high-speed lines and advanced service lines, with the number of subscribers for high-speed lines more than doubling and advanced service lines more than tripling in one year. As wireless networks continue to evolve, this trend will only continue. The use of wireless smartphones is rapidly proliferating, and so is consumer appetite for bandwidth-intensive Internet data and applications that run on smartphones. Without additional capacity, the continued innovation wireless consumers are enjoying may be at risk as innovation at the network edge is a direct result of investment and innovation in the network core and in wireless devices.
• Policymakers Should Aggressively Identify Additional Spectrum for Commercial Wireless Use and Facilitate More Efficient Clearing of Spectrum Already Allocated and Auctioned for CMRS. The explosive growth of mobile wireless broadband presents major challenges for provider networks. Wireless providers invest billions of dollars every year to expand the reach and capacity of their networks, yet demand for mobile broadband services is expected to outstrip network capacity. For this reason, it is critical for policymakers to identify additional spectrum for licensed commercial wireless use. By passing the Radio Spectrum Inventory Act (S. 649/H.R. 3125), Congress can take an important first step toward identify spectrum available for reallocation. In addition, CTIA has encouraged the FCC and NTIA to take steps to bring additional spectrum to market in the near term. For example, CTIA has urged policymakers to pair 50 MHz of spectrum in the 1.7 GHz and 2.1 GHz spectrum bands in order to increase capacity for U.S. wireless broadband consumers. CTIA has also urged the FCC to take action to clear spectrum that is already allocated for mobile broadband use in order to provide short-term relief. When spectrum, such as the AWS-1, BRS and 700 MHz, is auctioned to new entities, incumbent licensees must relocate in a timely fashion so the new licensees can fully utilize their spectrum. Swift action by the FCC to clear these previously auctioned bands will open up access to much-needed spectrum for wireless service providers to meet growing consumer demand.
• The FCC Should Move Quickly to Repurpose TV Broadcast Spectrum For Wireless Broadband Use. In a December 2009 joint filing , CTIA and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) proposed a common sense approach to repurposing significant amounts of television broadcast spectrum that is particularly well suited for mobile broadband. The reengineering approach outlined in the joint proposal would enable broadcasters to move to more efficient network architecture, would maintain free over-the-air television for consumers who choose that option and would at the same time free-up valuable spectrum for mobile broadband consumers. This transition would not cost broadcasters, nor would these upgrades impact consumers. While there are many challenges and complexities involved in this process, CTIA and CEA believe this proposal offers a feasible way to meet over-the-air television broadcasters' needs while recapturing significant amounts of spectrum for mobile broadband to enable next-generation wireless services.
• Timely Deployment of Wireless Tower Facilities is Critical to Ensuring Consumers' Access to Wireless Broadband Services. Delaying the deployment of towers designed to provide 3G and 4G services negatively impacts broadband service for millions of Americans and decreases network capacity and spectral efficiency. In the spring of 2008, CTIA surveyed our members on cell site backlogs and found that they collectively had more than 3,300 wireless siting applications pending before local jurisdictions. Of those, approximately a quarter had been in queue for more than a year, and more than 180 such applications had been awaiting final action for more than three years. 135 of the 180 applications pending were collocation applications where towers had already been approved. To address these delays, CTIA filed a petition asking the FCC to clarify and simplify the tower siting process. In response to CTIA's petition, in November 2009, the FCC approved a tower siting "shot clock" for local zoning authorities to act on tower siting requests. This action provided much-needed certainty to the tower siting process, which will enable wireless carriers to provide consumers with improved access to wireless broadband services.

Last Updated: December 2011