This problem of crowding is exacerbated in places that have seen rapid population growth in recent years—places like the city of Beacon, N.Y., where I live. As more people move to exurbs and suburbs and use more data-intensive services, the competition for that limited spectrum is growing. To provide faster and better service, wireless companies need to build more towers so people can connect to higher spectrums, but cities and towns usually oppose the construction of more towers. There’s currently a Change.org petition in my city of Beacon, NY, for instance, to stop the construction of a 125 foot Verizon cell tower in a local cemetery.
Why Verizon customers may be having more trouble
There’s a reason that I, as a Verizon customer, may be having more problems than my colleagues who use AT&T and T-Mobile, analysts say. It has to do with how much spectrum is available to each carrier.
Verizon had, for some time, decided that buying more spectrum was too expensive, says Entner, the analyst. What’s more, Verizon focused what investment it did make on the ultra high-frequency spectrum—sometimes called “the millimeter wave spectrum”—which is very fast but does not go very far or penetrate buildings or walls. This spectrum was available because most people thought it was too cost-prohibitive to put up enough towers to relay these types of waves far enough to make them valuable.