If one issue emerged from the recent Silicon Beach conference at USC’s Marshall School of Business, it’s this: Southern California’s future – from the safety of its people to developing next-generation technology to cultivating new prospects for the entertainment industry to strengthening public education – depends in large measure on the region’s capacity to build and upgrade its wireless broadband networks.
Why? Because so many of the devices that Southern Californians use in business communications and everyday life rely on instant access to mobile data. And Silicon Beach is where the apps of the future are being created. Over the next few years, those wireless needs will increase exponentially.
The problem is the very source of creation and extensive use of wireless broadband is also the center of resistance to broadband deployment efforts. SoCal remains a hotbed of innovation and use, and a hotbed of resistance to deployment, usually for spurious reasons.
We have only begun to realize the power of wireless. Beyond the steady rise in mobile subscriptions, we are witnessing a shift toward more powerful and versatile mobile devices that demand more bandwidth. Research conducted by USC’s Institute for Communication Technology Management shows that more than 60 percent of American households now have smartphones – and nearly half have tablets.
These next-generation devices are transforming our communications landscape. According to San Jose-based Cisco, the typical smartphone in 2013 generated nearly 50 times more mobile data traffic than the typical basic-feature cellphone, and the average tablet generated more than twice the traffic as a smartphone. At the same time, nearly 40 percent of U.S. homes are now wireless only, making their mobile devices their only communication devices. These trends demonstrate the utility and power of our connected devices, but they also highlight the enormity of increased network demand that will only grow in intensity in the months and years to come.
Entertainment industry executives and app designers, take heart, however: The United States is just now at the cusp of the mobile video revolution. Global mobile video has the potential to get a lot bigger and better – and far more lucrative for providers and carriers.
But that’s only if there’s the right infrastructure in place to transmit it. At the urging of my association, PCIA – The Wireless Infrastructure Association, the Federal Communications Commission this fall adopted a series of rules to streamline the deployment of wireless infrastructure. Southern California deserves first place in line.
My core message at the Silicon Beach forum was: The Internet of Things has to operate over an Internet of Reality. We all enthuse over the potential of wireless broadband to help create jobs, run machines, improve earthquake preparedness and public safety, and reach underserved populations – whether in rural California or the inner city.
Physical infrastructure
None of those things will happen unless there’s a physical infrastructure to support it. And that infrastructure won’t get built if this area persists in throwing up roadblocks to the deployment of world-class wireless networks. And no place is better at throwing up roadblocks than California.
To attain Silicon Beach’s business vision, we need better connectivity. To get better connectivity, we need better facilities. To get approval for such facilities, we need to take on the NIMBYs – those who say “not in my backyard” – and win!
Too often, the NIMBYs declare victory in Southern California siting debates because proponents of wireless broadband either fail to speak up or don’t do a good enough job in making the business case for mobile data.
I call the disparity between marketplace appetite and network capacity the “wireless data crunch.” There’s a wireless data crunch all over the country – but it’s especially acute in the L.A. Basin, where diverse business, demographic, geographic, transportation and health care needs impose a withering demand on current facilities.
And L.A.’s crunch will only grow bigger as Californians demand more bandwidth.
Silicon Beach doesn’t need to watch the waves to succeed. It needs to harness them. It needs talent, entrepreneurship, solidarity and a world-class wireless infrastructure. That will take a change of heart that the L.A. business community needs to lead.
Jonathan Adelstein, a former FCC commissioner, is chief executive of PCIA – The Wireless Infrastructure Association. He was a panelist at the Silicon Beach conference at USC’s Marshall School of Business in October.
