Usage of mobile and broadband Internet bandwidth is growing exponentially, creating new opportunities — and challenges — for cell carriers and network service providers, according to Tom Westdyk, Group Head and Managing Director, CIT Corporate Finance, Communications, Information Services & Technology at CIT Group, Inc. Westdyk shares these insights and others in “A Broader Information Superhighway,” the latest piece of market intelligence to be featured in CIT’s Executive Insights series.

“In the United States, we’re seeing subscriber growth starting to level off for cell carriers, so more and more bandwidth usage is being driven by consumers’ use of mobile applications, and especially by mobile video,” says Westdyk. “As a result, cell carriers are seeing capacity bottlenecks appear in areas of high population density.”

The cell carriers are pursuing many options to address the increasing demand for bandwidth, including leasing additional space on new cell towers, using supplementary antenna systems in urban areas and continuing to move away from unlimited-data plans.

Westdyk also offers his views on how evolving consumer behavior is impacting cable and fiber-optic network service providers. He notes, “There has been a lot of discussion of the fear of ‘cord-cutting’ among millennials, more and more of whom are happy to stream their TV and video content over the Internet rather than watch traditional cable TV. However, the same company that provides consumers their TV service is most likely the company they’ll turn to for broadband Internet access, so the net number of cable and fiber-optic customers isn’t likely to fall.”

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