The New York State Wireless Association (NYSWA) held its annual Educational Forum Monday night at the New York Times Building in Manhattan with panels and keynote addresses that covered both state and industry-wide issues. Cathy Piche, EVP and COO of Crown Castle, was the featured keynote speaker who set the proverbial telecom table with an overview of what’s to come for the infrastructure industry. Piche cited statistics that showed the usage of 132 trillion MB of mobile data in 2024 representing a daily usage increase of 3,000 percent over a decade ago.
“What’s behind it?”, Piche asked. “It’s video.” She said streaming platforms were the rise of user generated content and that consumers are uploading just as much as they’re downloading, Piche said new AI tools will require lower latency and reliable uplink capacity.
“That’s why the networks we all know will have to be more balanced, resilient and more intelligent than ever before,” she said. “It’s transformative, but really just the beginning for all of us,” she said. With carriers investing more than $32 billion in capex each year and steady growth ahead, Piche said, for infrastructure providers, staying ahead of demand requires foresight…