Telecommunications infrastructure, or wireless and cellular infrastructure, is now integral to daily life, business, and government purposes. These towers enable us to stay connected with each other via smart phones, internet, and so forth. In order to keep these lines of communication open, we need to maintain the cell sites, small cells, and distributed antenna systems (DAS) that we have already built. Not only do we need to keep these significant infrastructure systems in proper working order, but we need more of them.
Governments from different countries worldwide are hyper-focused on the development of telecom infrastructure. The way in which many countries are trying to grow their telecom tower market is through easy regulations and fast permission systems to set up new cell sites. This is in a bid to improve connectivity throughout the country, even in the most remote and rural of areas. The adaptation of this strategy of placing cell sites in rural areas, especially in developing countries, may bring more growth opportunities for the telecom industry.
The telecommunication industry has seen vast growth throughout recent years, through smart phone usage becoming mainstream and part of the dominant culture. It has also seen new connectivity-enhancing technologies taking the front seat. The Covid-19 outbreak has further proven the need to further develop more telecom sites in rural areas worldwide. The pandemic has led to more people working from home, holding remote meetings via video conferencing platforms, and shared databases being accessed while out of the office space. This point in time has highlighted the importance for robust telecom infrastructure to meet the ‘new normal’ requirements. The way in which people interact, work together, and conduct their own personal lives has changed dramatically since pre-Covid times. The telecom sector will need to further increase their telecom network to keep up with the demand and need.
In light of this, the essential need for high-speed internet availability to all operations of daily economic, social and political life is glaringly obvious. Yet many rural communities remain underserved and overlooked by broadband services and network providers. For the most part, mobile operators would prefer to focus their efforts building telecom infrastructure and renting towers in urban areas which have a large number of potential customers. Installing the infrastructure is expensive, and companies are reluctant to take it on in sparsely populated areas. There are less opportunities, and thus less income, for the mobile phone operators in rural communities.
However, Governments throughout the world are developing plans to expand broadband services to neglected areas that are scarce and under-populated. The delivery of high-quality internet service is about ensuring that rural citizens worldwide have the same life abilities, and the same access to information, culture, philosophies, social interaction and prospects that people in urban areas enjoy. The dichotomy lies between the Governments that wish to provide rural-dwellers a more prosperous future with better connectivity, and network operators that are reluctant to lessen the gaping urban-rural broadband divide.