WIA: Wireless Infrastructure Growing and Becoming More Efficient
At the end of 2024, just over 651,000 structures supported wireless infrastructure across the U.S., the Wireless Infrastructure Association said in a report Wednesday. WIA said that last year, the wireless industry spent more than $10.8 billion “expanding network capacity and coverage, excluding expenditures on spectrum.” Total wireless infrastructure investments, “including construction, maintenance and operations,” were more than $63 billion. The report said 368,750 workers were employed in the U.S. wireless infrastructure sector at the end of 2024.
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WIA said 154,800 of the structures are purpose-built cellular towers, with 248,050 macrocell sites and 197,850 outdoor small cells. The wireless structures include cell towers, “broadcast TV and radio towers, water towers, rooftops, church steeples, billboards, utility poles, farm silos, and other buildings,” the report said: “While some of these sites accommodate macrocells and small cells, many are not in optimal locations or capable of supporting the macrocellular equipment used by today’s network operators.” Carriers also have 802,500 indoor small-cell nodes in operation.
The wireless industry is putting more gear on existing tower facilities and increasing the rate of collocation rather than installing new towers, WIA said, and tower and cellsite efficiency is on the rise. As wireless network technologies evolve, network equipment is becoming more efficient and cost-effective, the report said: “This is especially true of 5G equipment compared to the older generation 4G infrastructure. Overall, the industry is getting more bang for the buck.”
One trend WIA cited is that carriers are no longer building most infrastructure. “Beginning in the late 1990s and early 2000s, carriers began selling their tower assets, fueling the growth of independent tower companies, a trend that continued in 2024.”