2022 is the year of peak 5G spending

There’s a lot of money flowing to 5G network buildouts right now as US wireless operators race to expand their 5G coverage. In fact, it’s likely that 2022 to be the peak year for 5G spending by US wireless operators. Stefan Pongratz, vice president at Dell’Oro Group, said that the company expects US wireless capital expenditures to grow at a double-digit rate in 2022 and then taper off in 2023 and 2024. One reason behind this is that both AT&T and Verizon are ramping up their mid-band 5G deployments in the C-band and the 3.45 GHz spectrum bands. Verizon and AT&T both were awarded spectrum licenses in the C-band. Verizon spent $45.5 billion and AT&T spent $23.4 billion on C-band licenses. In addition, AT&T spent $9.1 billion on 3.45 GHz spectrum licenses. T-Mobile, which is ahead of the other two operators in terms of its 5G coverage, has said that it will cover 260 million people with 5G in its 2.5 GHz spectrum by the end of 2022, up from the 201 million people that it covered with 5G in its mid-band spectrum at the end of 2021. The company said its capital expenditures for 2022 would be in the $13 billion to $13.5 billion range, slightly up from the $12.3 billion the company spent in 2021. Dish Networks, which is building a greenfield nationwide 5G network but making use of the latest cloud-centric technologies, said it will spend $2.5 billion in capital expenditures in 2022. The company is under pressure to meet a June 2022 buildout deadline from the Federal Communications Commission and has to cover 20 percent of the population with 5G by that deadline.

[Sue Marek is a freelance tech writer and editor, and has reported on the telecom and tech industries for more than 25 years.]