NTCA Survey Finds Strong Rural Wireless Investment Plans

Two thirds of NTCA’s small telephone company members currently offer some form of wireless service -- and 35 percent of companies that don’t offer wireless are considering it, reports the NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association in its 2014 Wireless Survey Report.

Eighty-one percent of respondents who currently offer wireless said they plan to deploy next-generation technology, including 74 percent who plan to do so within the next two years. The median cumulative investment that respondents have made in wireless facilities, excluding spectrum, is $1.7 million. Median cumulative investment in spectrum is $433,000. Unlicensed spectrum is important to rural wireless operators, the NTCA survey showed. Nearly half of respondents (49 percent) said they use unlicensed spectrum to provide some wireless services. A substantial portion of those companies (63 percent) have had difficulties with the technology however -- primarily interference and line-of-sight problems. Rural wireless carriers’ biggest concern, cited by 73 percent of respondents, is their ability to compete with national carriers.