在最近的所有负标志中美国人口普查局有关非住宅建设的数据, the communications sector was among the handful of subsectors where spending increased from the previous month. And even if the market isn’t white hot, contractors service communications carriers appear to have plenty of work.

Marty Travers, president of Black & Veatch’s telecommunications business, says that consumers’ “insatiable desire” for greater speed, coverage and reliability is just one of the drivers behind a continuing stream of projects aimed at extending fiber optic networks, deploying gigabit-speed capacity and filling wireless coverage gaps with small cells and other technology infrastructure.

根据CTIA, the wireless industry trade association, U.S. carriers invested almost $32 billion in 2015, including adding almost 10,000 new cell sites. Smartphones, the wireless device of choice among Americans, now number more than 228 million units domestically, with nearly three-quarters of the population owning at least one.

特拉弗斯说，小单元对于在高度限制区域中增加网络密度是有利的，因为“可以将它们放在已经是景观中的一部分的光线和公用电线杆上。”

For that reason, he adds, telecommunications firms are counting on their design consultants to bring a measure of creativity to their assignments, “and understand how to most effectively get a site installed with least disruption to existing infrastructure.”

随着无线访问越来越多地被认为是一项基本的公共服务，不仅仅是座机的辅助服务，政府参与电信项目正在增长。新利18备用网址举措包括FirstNet，这是一项为急救人员提供的联邦支持的宽带增强计划，以及肯塔基州的Middle Mile，这是一种公私合作伙伴关系，可为肯塔基州的120个县带来3,400英里的高速，高容量光纤互联网连接。

But there’s more than just a mass craving for cat videos and Pokamon Go behind the sector’s activity. Intensifying competition to handle all those calls, texts, Tweets, Facebook updates and app downloads has carriers of all sizes scrambling to protect their respective customer bases.

“It’s not unusual to see new entrant target a market,” Travers says, “and then have the incumbent carrier provide upgrades.”