Brattle Group has this week released a report that warns of structural failings in the US wireless infrastructure services industry.

The report focuses specifically on the tower climbing and construction sector, and warns of long-term risks to national security, public safety, and wireless innovation.

The report was put together by NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association, in partnership with Brattle.

According to the report, the industry is dominated by the Big 3 US mobile network operators: Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T, who collectively control over 97 percent of the market.

It's this dominance that has created a "classic monopsony structure where buyers have market power," notes Brattle.

This dominance has become an issue for the hundreds of small contractors in the tower construction and maintenance sector.

As such, Brattle's survey found that MNOs "impose rigid, non-negotiable matrix pricing agreements that fail to cover the actual costs of labor, equipment, and region-specific deployment conditions."

"This Brattle Group report should be mandatory reading in the C-suites of Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T,” said NATE president & CEO Todd Schlekeway.

“It clearly validates what our member companies have long experienced on the ground: a market distorted by monopsony power, where the economic structure is broken and unsustainable. NATE will be sharing these findings with key federal government agencies and Congressional stakeholders in the coming weeks to continue to educate policymakers and drive urgently needed reforms.”

The industry is slimming down

Brattle revealed that 80 percent of respondents said that pricing offered by the MNOs is insufficient to cover their costs, while 96 percent said these agreements fail to account for local labor, terrain, or weather factors.

On top of this, Brattle claims that contractors "face a growing list of uncompensated costs passed down by MNOs—including warehousing, third-party compliance fees, and expanding training requirements."

The report notes that 98 percent of contractors pay for required third-party programs, and 84 percent report increased training costs.

Delayed payments and extended payment terms have also been an issue for contractors, with many forced to operate at a loss for these services simply to retain workers and preserve client relationships.

This, Brattle says, has led the industry to slim down. Indeed, 54 percent of the survey respondents said they have reduced employee counts in the past three years, while some experienced firms are exiting altogether.

Such a trend could have a huge impact on the deployment of future wireless technologies in the country, with 5G still being rolled out by carriers, and the arrival of 6G expected at the end of the decade.

"The loss of skilled tower climbers and contractors poses a national security risk. The communications sector is a federally designated critical infrastructure industry, and its continued operation depends on a reliable supply of trained, experienced labor," said Brattle.

"In this context, institutional knowledge—the skills and expertise built through years of experience—plays a critical role in maintaining stable, responsive operations, especially during national emergencies such as natural disasters or any large-scale malicious attacks on the infrastructure."