With technology upgrades such as 5G equipment swaps, carriers cannot just remove previous antennas and equipment as not all wireless subscribers will change to 5G handsets at the same time. In fact, it may take many years before all wireless customers will change handsets. Therefore, wireless carriers must be able to serve 4G, 3G, UMTS, GSM, CDMA, LTE, etc. in addition to 5G. E911 calls must work regardless of the phone devices from which wireless customers are calling. So over the years, all antennas, radios, amplifiers, and hybrid combiners accumulate rather than getting replaced. This places additional structural load, more electronics, batteries, generators, fiber interconnects, and possibly greater demands on the utility easement rights.
However, no tower or rooftop can possibly support 5 generations of equipment (5G) from each wireless carrier. Structural load, equipment size, power consumption, interconnect bandwidth, and other technical factors make the network too complex and expensive to operate. Over time, wireless carriers have developed ways to combine some radio equipment by transmitting different frequencies and technologies through combined electronics. But to complicate the situation, the FCC keeps on making additional frequencies available at different bands, and integrating them into electronics has not been easy. The result is a wireless network that is substantially more complex today than 25 years ago. How that complexity impacts your lease is our role as your engineering and leasing consultant.