By: Bruce Lancaster

The rapid expansion of available spectrum and the pursuit to harness the full potential of 5G technology are fundamentally transforming cellular connectivity. As new spectrum allocations enhance capacity, businesses encounter both opportunities and challenges in seamlessly integrating advanced solutions with their existing infrastructure. Notably, nearly half of IT and operations leaders identify rapid technological change and complexity as significant hurdles, underscoring the necessity for a proactive approach.

This article delves into the strategic shift in connectivity planning, emphasizing the importance of scalable and flexible systems that meet current demands while adapting to future needs. By focusing on proactive optimization, enterprises can treat connectivity as a utility—the backbone of their operations—ensuring reliability, resilience, and enabling transformational technologies, like the Internet of Things (IoT), and real-time collaboration. Connectivity's role has evolved into a critical enabler of innovation and long-term competitiveness. Through scalable and forward-thinking strategies, businesses can align their connectivity infrastructure with changing requirements, fortifying their readiness to meet future complexities.

The Expanding Spectrum Landscape

The telecommunications industry is witnessing an unprecedented expansion in spectrum availability, particularly in the mid-band frequencies. This expansion is necessary due to the ever-increasing demand for wireless connectivity.  It is also pivotal for deploying 5G networks, offering a balance between coverage and capacity. According to a report by CTIA, deploying each additional 100 MHz of mid-band spectrum can add $260 billion to the U.S. GDP, highlighting the significant economic impact of spectrum availability.

During the initial deployment of 2G and 3G networks in the U.S., only 85MHz of bandwidth was available across 2 frequency bands. 4G networks in the U.S. have expanded that occupied bandwidth to over 4x that bandwidth (up to 336MHz) and it has expanded to 5 frequency bands. Today, 5G networks demand support for up to 500MHz bandwidth in more than frequency 6 bands, and mmWave deployments now demand a staggering amount of bandwidth of over 1GHz. Similar spectrum expansion has taken place in Europe, Asia, South America, Australia, and other countries. This expansion does not account the 2-way radio bands, the 700 and 800 MHz public safety bands, nor the CBRS spectrum that is now available in the U.S., increasing the spectrum availability and complexity.

Expanded spectrum availability creates new pathways to deliver higher throughputs and lower latency via cellular networks. This is accomplished by aggregating multiple bands of spectrums owned by carriers. This new spectrum also allows for the deployment of private 5G networks and other tailored connectivity systems. Organizations can leverage these developments to enhance operational efficiency and drive innovation.

The integration of advanced connectivity solutions presents a dual-faceted scenario for businesses. On one hand, enhanced connectivity facilitates the adoption of IoT devices, real-time data analytics, and seamless communication across various