Digital Landscape in the US

PROSPECTS

5G roll-out begins in the US

The expansion of 5G service remains a major talking point in the telecommunications industry. The excitement over the tremendously fast speeds offered by 5G technology is balanced out by the challenges associated with the significant amount of hardware that must be deployed to reach consumers.

Extending service to rural areas remains a challenge

While mobile and broadband service in urban regions of the US remains relatively well provisioned, providing service to rural areas continues to pose a challenge. The US population is highly concentrated in urban and suburban areas with vast amounts of rural and undeveloped territory.

SpaceX Starlink programme underway, targets 2020 internet service Launch

A high-profile endeavour not only in the US, but globally, the launch of SpaceX’s Starlink programme in the end of 2019 and early 2020 has made significant progress towards developing a planned satellite internet programme that relies on constellations of satellites launched by the private space company and deploying internet service around the globe. The company is planning to launch access to the service in the US in 2020, a development that could be particularly important for rural and other traditionally underserved regions of the country.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Heated competition between AT&T and Verizon shifting towards 5G

AT&T and Verizon, the country’s two largest mobile carriers, have a long-standing rivalry in the US market, one that has seen some disruption from T-Mobile’s innovations throughout the years. As AT&T and Verizon begin to develop and roll out evolutions of their 4G networks, and the beginnings of their 5G networks, the competition between the two networks is shifting towards network capabilities.

US government approves Sprint - T-Mobile deal

In early 2020, a federal judge signed off on the blockbuster merger of T-Mobile and Sprint, two of the largest mobile carriers in the US. While the government has been wary of approving mergers of major telecom providers in the US, the judge’s rationale was based upon the shortcomings and limited service quality of Sprint, which has seen a major downturn over the course of the last decade.

Television providers continue to enter mobile telephone service market

The Sprint - T-Mobile merger is not the only big news in the US cellular service market. An emerging storyline has also been addition of new cell service providers leveraging the networks of larger competitors, particularly new providers coming from the more terrestrial television and internet companies.

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