Last week, the Southeast Wireless Summit convened in Nashville with wireless telecommunications providers, developers, vendors, and industry professionals in attendance.  The Summit provided significant insight into trends in the wireless telecommunications industry.  From the various panels and conversations with industry representatives, a few things stuck out to us.

First, it’s clear that the industry is growing! And with that growth there has been a strain on the tower maintenance workforce.  Industry leaders and tower associations, such as NATE (National Association of Tower Erectors), are pursuing improvements to worker safety protocols and working with government regulators to do so.  Also, industry professionals are noticing significant deviation from NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) related agreements such as the National Programmatic Agreement (NPA) that direct interactions between various stakeholders in the development of telecommunications sites.  This may result in additional FCC directives in the development of future telecommunication facilities.

We enjoyed the time to meet industry representatives and hearing from knowledgeable panelists, and we look forward to attending next year!

For more information on SMG’s telecommunications work click here.