In case you missed it – Tech industry expert and Disruptive Analysis Founder, Dean Bubley, wrote a new column for RCR Wireless fact-checking the conclusions in CTIA’s economic impact study from NERA consulting, which overstates the economic benefits of exclusive spectrum – while ignoring clearing costs and alternative mechanisms for obtaining extra capacity or coverage.

“[I]t appears that its report has avoided some critically important questions in evaluating the true potential economic benefits of spectrum, such as where deployment can be realistically expected, how such networks might be used, what the costs and challenges of moving incumbents might be, and which adjacent trends such as technical efficiency gains might offer as alternatives,” wrote Bubley. “In summary, these critical omitted points render the NERA report’s analysis incomplete while overstating the economic benefits of extra 5G spectrum and leaving the consequential costs ignored and alternative mechanisms for obtaining extra capacity or coverage overlooked.”

For the last two decades, Dean Bubley has been writing about numerous issues in the telecom space, including spectrum.

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Fact-Checking The CTIA / NERA Economics Report

RCR Wireless

Dean Bubley, Founder of Disruptive Analysis

May 7, 2025

https://www.rcrwireless.com/20250507/5g/fact-checking-the-ctia-nera-economics-report-analyst-angle

Recently, U.S. mobile industry trade association CTIA published a study performed by the economic consultancy NERA. It claimed that releasing additional spectrum for full-power 5G wide-area networks would generate a $260 billion uplift in GDP, and 1.5 million extra jobs, for every 100 megahertz auctioned. It used this result to call for an extra 400 megahertz to be made available in the near-term.

However, while the NERA study may on the surface appear to adopt a sensible methodology, it misses a range of important factors that cast significant doubt on its quantitative analysis and conclusions. Below, we discuss:

• Costs and delays involved in clearing and releasing spectrum bands
• An implicit assumption that all midband frequency ranges are similarly valuable
• Technology evolution to improve network efficiency of existing spectrum
• Doubtful predictions over new spectrum’s impact on Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) deployment and value

Read Dean’s full column on RCR Wireless.

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