RF Industries CEO Doubtful of ‘Full-Blown’ 5G Buildout ‘Spend’ in 2019

Market uncertainty over the “T-Mobile/Sprint conversation” is partly to blame for the “halting nature” of the 5G infrastructure “spend out there, at least as it relates to the contractors and the integrators doing work for those carriers,” said RF Industries CEO Rob Dawson on a Q1 call Tuesday. His company supplies interconnects and other wireless-infrastructure products. That the deal's regulatory review seems to keep “starting and stopping” doesn't “necessarily help any of us get a clear sense of a forecast of real timing” on the 5G buildout, he said. “I'm hoping that gets resolved one way or the other here in the next quarter or so.” Dawson thinks carriers “are clearly committed to deploying 5G in multiple cities” this year, but “I don't think we're close” to any “full-blown spend,” he said. “We're certainly seeing it ramp up,” but nowhere to the point of what it “will be, ultimately,” he said. “I'd be surprised if we get a full-blown spend this calendar year.”