FCC Chairman Ajit Pai speaking recently at the Mobile World Congress Americas in San Francisco, discussed the importance of wireless phones in times of disaster, the road to 5G, U.S and the big increase in mobile penetration, but he also discussed the lack of wireless service in many rural areas.
FCC www.fcc.gov participates in disaster response efforts by working with the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, state public safety officials, and private communications providers. The FCC monitors the communications networks in affected areas, provides information, data, and support to first responders, but also provides access to the spectrum when needed to communicate.
As he explained, in the case of Harvey, the wireless networks proved to be much more resilient than in some of the previous disasters. In the initial phase of Harvey, Houston’s main 911 emergency response center received more than 96,000 calls many of which were from wireless phones.
The transition from 4G to 5G promises to provide improvements in network speed, capacity, and responsiveness. One analysis by CTIA suggests that 5G could create three million jobs and over $500 billion in additional GDP growth over seven years in the U.S.
The Chairman mentioned that the FCC has released their 20th “Mobile Wireless Competition Report” which analyzes whether effective competition exists in the marketplace for mobile wireless services.
The report points out that consumer demand continues to rise. Mobile subscriptions were up five percent last year to about 400 million with roughly 80 percent of mobile subscribers now using smartphones. The average subscriber uses 4GB of data a month which is up 34 percent from a year ago.
Even though data shows consumer choice, demand, and usage going up, along with improvements in service quality, plus prices are going down, but there are still challenges especially in rural areas. Only 55 percent of rural Americans can choose from four LTE providers. About 3 percent of U.S road miles and 20 percent of square miles have no coverage at all.
The FCC is working towards reducing the digital divide by bringing mobile broadband using funds from the Mobility Fund Phase II which is a $4.53 billion fund. This fund will use money previously used to subsidize areas that already have 4G LTE services but now the funds will be used to help to bring 4G LTE to rural areas.
Commissioner Pai also believes that in order for the FCC to expand digital opportunities it will be necessary for the FCC to set rules that will maximize private investment in high-speed networks. The more difficult the government makes the business case for deployment, the less likely it is that broadband providers will invest the billions of dollars needed to connect consumers especially in rural communities.
Go to www.fcc.gov/document/20th-mobile-wireless-competition-report-pn to view the 20th Mobile Wireless Competition Report.