Last week was the annual Wireless Infrastructure Show put on by the industry association PCIA – The Wireless Infrastructure Association. The first announcement at the show was a new name for the association–the Wireless Infrastructure Association or WIA—with a new website at www.wia.org. There is no change in the mission or priorities of the association, just dropping an outdated and confusing old acronym dating back to the 1990s.
There was excellent attendance, many keynote speeches, a record number of exhibitors, and a strong education program. I moderated a session on the Tribal Consultation Process with five subject matter experts as speakers. The panelists addressed issues in the current FCC process including sometimes slow response times from Tribal authorities, adequacy of resources for the Tribes to carry out reviews, and appropriateness of fees charged by reviewing authorities. The panel agreed that significant progress has been made on clearing sites for Positive Train Control, the deadline for which was recently extended.
At other panels, tower company CEOs and CFOs noted that the wireless infrastructure business is not booming right now as the cellular providers have mustered their capital for the FCC’s current television spectrum incentive auction but predicted that it will ramp up again within the next 18 months in the normal cycle of this business.
Next year’s Wireless Infrastructure Show will be held May 22-25 in Orlando, FL.