LIVE FROM MWC LAS VEGAS 2024: Bosses of industry association CTIA encouraged the next US President to address a growing spectrum shortage in the country, warning another four years of inaction is putting decades of progress at risk.

CEO of CTIA Meredith Attwell-Baker (pictured) started her keynote address by looking back at the first US spectrum auction, held 30 years ago, which raised a total of more than $600 million and is widely seen as a revolutionary point for the industry.

She said the industry has been built from those foundations, and today, big tech and wireless are two of the biggest investors in the US, with a total $30 billion spent over the past year.

Attwell-Baker explained investment has been needed to address growing data demands, which in the past two years has doubled to “nearly more than 100 trillion megabytes”

However, she added that “we had to meet this staggering spike in demand last year without new spectrum auctioned”.

“The hard truth is this year’s growth will have no new spectrum either. This is unsustainable,” she said.

To press home her point, Attwell-Baker then played a video interviewing former US industry executives, who all bemoaned the fact US regulator Federal Communications Commission (FCC) no longer has legal authority over spectrum auctions, describing the situation as “embarrassing “ and “nuts”.

The CTIA boss then turned her attentions to the next US administration, due to be elected in November this year, stating Donald Trump or Kamala Harris will “need to move decisively to restore authority” and help “ensure that wireless leadership remains here in the US”.

She also pointed to rivalling nations, stating that by 2027 the US is expected to have a global mid-band deficit of 518MHz.

“We’re seeing other nations move forward while we are stuck in bureaucratic morass… China simply signed huge blocks of spectrum to drive growth. By 2027 China alone will have up to four times more mid band than we will have,” she warned.

Rural attention
While echoing everything Attwell-Baker said about spectrum, CTIA chairman and CEO of Carolina West Wireless, Slayton Stewart, said the next administration must also put more attention on the country’s small regional operators.

Stewart explained his company serves 11 mountainous counties in North Carolina, and there needs to be a robust government approarch to deliver on the universal connectivity promise the US congress made to America.

He recommended four steps to achieve this: delivery of the FCC’s fund to ensure every road and location is served by high quality terrestrial; maintain towers built in rural areas; ensure support in high-cost areas and for low-income Americans; and finally to deliver more spectrum in rural areas.