Mobile Experts has released a new white paper this week, with a detailed review of the growing demand for mobile data in the United States, and the options available to mobile operators to build capacity in the network. It examines the ability of mobile networks to keep up with capacity requirements, the limitations of some industry solutions, and the best way to ease the ‘capacity crunch’ expected in 2027-2028.
The white paper, titled The Need for Spectrum 2024, presents detailed modeling of future growth of mobile data. AI workloads, AR/VR, video traffic, and FWA will be driving the dense urban network to nearly 4X the current data load by 2030. This creates a "capacity gap" that will become a challenge without new spectrum to handle higher usage.
Specifically, this white paper examines small cells and millimeter wave solutions, to illustrate how each of these solutions can help fill that capacity gap. Each of these solutions can add capacity to the network, but each has limitations, either on the technical side or in the economics of widespread deployment.
"In every generation since the 1990s, we have been able to clear new spectrum that's adequate to keep up with capacity," commented Joe Madden, Principal Analyst at Mobile Experts. "This time, we're anticipating a 'capacity gap' in dense urban areas in 2028 that will require a big block of new spectrum. With our 15-year history of deep-dive technical analysis in radios, small cells, and mm-wave, we also evaluate how various solutions will combine to address the gap."
Click here to learn more about spectrum usage from this new white paper.
