Mobile Traffic Boom Bodes Well for Tower Industry, Macquarie Analyst Says
The expected boom in mobile data traffic due to the IoT and connected cars, the deployment of millimeter wave, new mobile entrants like Google and cable, and the eventual build out of incentive auction spectrum will drive growth at tower…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
companies, Macquarie Research analyst Amy Yong wrote investors as her firm initiated coverage on the tower industry. She said global tower growth is expected to outpace the U.S. economy through 2020, and mobile data traffic is expected to grow at 40 to 50 percent annually in the next couple of years. The 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference could allocate globally as much as 500 MHz for mobile, Yong said, saying the FCC concluding its proceedings on 5G spectrum might also lead to a millimeter wave auction. She sees three possibilities for Dish Network's 80 MHz of spectrum: leasing it or partnering with T-Mobile or smaller carriers; combining with T-Mobile; or an outright sale to Verizon or AT&T. The analyst said AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Comcast and Dish combined will likely spend $36 billion to $40 billion in the broadcast incentive auction (see 1612060034).