Blog | News & Information on Wireless Services & Telecommunications
Posted: 05/17/12 by Jonathan Spalter
As President Obama puts his re-election campaign into gear, one of his emerging themes is his refrain: ''we can't wait.' More than just a line on a campaign bumper sticker, it's a serious and timely call for American citizens -- and our politicians -- to take to heart as the nation's economy seeks to recover from recession. The message is clear: Political gridlock and bureaucratic inertia in Washington must take a back seat to the more urgent tasks of moving our economy forward and putting the interests and needs of our citizens first.
The president rightly insists that we can't wait for action to deal with many priority policy issues, from health care, to addressing the deficit, to energy policy.
But one vitally important issue needs also to be put on the president's priority "we can't wait" list, and put right at the top of the White House's action plan, and that is ensuring our citizens, our businesses, and our communities will have sufficient mobile connectivity in the coming years to support our economy and our modern, connected lives.
We now have more wireless subscriptions than people in this country and half of us own a smartphone. In the next four years, it's expected that a tablet will be our primary computing device. Already, one in three of us now own a mobile reading device. Yet far too little spectrum -- the airwaves that make it all work -- is currently allocated by the government to support wireless.
Today, the U.S. leads the world in 4G deployment, but we also lead in having the most congested wireless networks in the world -- operating at about 80 percent capacity, well ahead of the 65 percent global average. According to the Federal Communications Commission, U.S. demand for wireless connectivity could exceed existing capacity as early as next year.
Nearly 16 months ago, President Obama wisely set an important goal for the nation. In his 2011 State of the Union address, he vowed to connect virtually all Americans to the high-speed wireless Internet.
If achieved, this objective would unlock opportunity throughout our nation -- creating jobs and economic growth and powering social progress from health care to education to the environment. However, meaningful progress toward this goal could be slowed significantly unless the White House itself uses its full resources to ensure all agencies of the U.S. government heed the president's call.
This simply is not an issue that can be left to the federal bureaucracy itself to sort out; the spectrum buck must stop at the White House. There simply are too many jurisdictional conflicts, vested interests, and lack of incentives at the agency level. To ensure our mobile future has the spectrum it needs to succeed and compete globally, we need assertive, engaged, and clear leadership at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Time is of the essence. Mobile data traffic is expected to grow 21-fold over the next few years. And if we don't move quickly, the specter of spectrum exhaustion can leave our entire mobile innovation sector -- and our nation's mobile consumers -- out of oxygen. Simply put, the government must act to ensure there is adequate spectrum to support this consumer- and economy-driven growth.
In a letter we sent to key White House colleagues earlier this week, we suggested four concrete steps that can be taken today.
Call for Immediate Transparency of Government Spectrum Assets: The government controls significant spectrum, much of which is un- or under-utilized. From divesting unused spectrum to exploring innovative spectrum-sharing approaches, there is no question that some of this capacity can and should be freed to expand the wireless web. Consistent with the Administration's overall commitment to transparent government, calling on all agencies to publicly and timely disclose their spectrum assets is a critical first step to informed public debate.
Fix What You Can Today: Adding spectrum capacity is a protracted process. Several years are required to navigate the government process of allocating spectrum and several more are required to do the capital- and labor-intensive work of building out infrastructure. What government can do now is follow through on its promise to address Channel 51 interference issues that effectively block use of A Block spectrum to support mobile connectivity. This would provide substantial near-term relief from spectrum exhaust and unlock significant economic opportunities.
Determine the Path Forward for Spectrum Sharing: Wireless network operators stand ready to work closely with federal agencies to begin to work through issues around spectrum sharing. Delay is not an option. The White House needs to ensure all federal agencies begin immediately to work constructively with mobile innovators to set a concrete path forward.
Send Clear Pro-Investment Signals to the Marketplace: While it can cost billions of dollars to acquire spectrum, that sum is only a fraction of the overall cost to translate raw spectrum into actual wireless capacity. For the past 10 years, wireless companies have invested more than $23 billion annually in the nation's mobile infrastructure. It is essential to U.S. competitiveness that this robust investment continues, if not, grows. Government actions must send clear and consistent pro-investment signals -- from supporting secondary market transactions, to championing voluntary incentive auctions, to releasing fallow government spectrum. It also is important that any future spectrum auctions be inclusive and present multiple opportunities for carriers, large and small, to accommodate their customers.
It is estimated that achieving the president's spectrum goal could create 500,000 U.S. jobs. But leadership is needed from the White House today to ensure that agencies throughout the government feel a sense of urgency in working to support the president's bold vision. Real and timely action would send a much-needed signal to the capital markets that this administration is indeed intent on matching its actions to its words and addressing the significant risk of spectrum exhaust for all Americans. Here, indeed, we can't wait.
This article was originally published on Huffington Post.
Posted: 05/16/12 by Allison Remsen
Last Friday, our friends at Hogan Lovells hosted a great event, the Winnik International Telecoms & Internet Forum, at their office in DC. The terrific lineup of speakers discussed many important issues affecting the telecom sector around the world.
Top of mind for us at Mobile Future were some of the remarks from my former boss, Decker Anstrom, a telecom industry veteran who was selected to lead the U.S. delegation to the 2012 World Radio Conference earlier this year.
In his comments, Decker couldn’t have put it any more clearly: “Anyone who tries to deny a spectrum crunch isn't listening to what every telecommunications leader in the world is saying . . . Everyone is asking for more mobile broadband spectrum.”
Here in the U.S., we’ve seen a huge spike in consumer demand for all things mobile – from using more data demanding wireless devices to improve access to healthcare and facilitate digital learning initiatives to significantly driving new economic opportunities, wireless services play a critical role in connecting us. However, the FCC predicts we could max out on existing spectrum capacity as early as next year.
This is an issue our leaders need to take seriously and they must act soon. This week, Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter sent a letter to new White House CTO Todd Park and Gene Sperling, National Economic Council Director, urging the President and his team to show strong leadership to help repurpose un- or under-utilized government spectrum assets for mobile.
As Decker explained, telecom leaders around the world are all clearly focused on the problem. Last year, the President set us on the right course with his bold wireless initiative but we need to keep the ball rolling now to free up more spectrum for mobile ensure a bright future for U.S. wireless users.
Posted: 05/15/12 by Mobile Future Team
comScore recently released its Mobile Metrox 2.0 which measures Americans mobile behaviors including app and mobile browsing usage. The findings point to the increased reliance on smartphones and wireless devices for social media engagement.
Some of the key statistics from the report include:
- In March, the average mobile Facebook user spent at least 7 hours on Facebook either through their mobile browser or Facebook app.
- There are 25.6 million mobile Twitter users and the average user spent about 2 hours on Twitter via a mobile device in March, compared to merely 20.4 minutes on Twitter via a computer.
- Mobile Pinterest users reached 7.5 million and in March users spent an average of one hour on Pinterest via a mobile device.
To learn more, click here.
Posted: 05/02/12 by Mobile Future Team
New stats recently released highlight the frenetic growth of the wireless industry. According to Business Insider more people have mobile subscriptions than electricity and safe drinking water in the world and Forrester Research predicts in 2016, 375 million tablets will sell globally and that tablets will become user’s main computing device as reported in Computerworld.
To learn more, click here.
Posted: 04/27/12
Today, Mobile Future member company BUMP, Network Founder & CEO Mitch Thrower appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box to discuss new ventures in technology and start-ups with fellow entrepreneurs.
To learn more, click here.
Posted: 04/23/12 by Jonathan Spalter
Mobile devices are quickly becoming the nation's preferred on-ramp for all things Internet -- including high bandwidth goodies like movies and TV shows. And mobile graphics will soon rival gaming platforms such as Xbox 360, PlayStation and Wii, providing an enhanced mobile gaming experience, according to gaming technology company Nvidia.
We also are seeing a sharp increase in consumers viewing programming online, and Congress this week is holding a hearing on Internet video. Changing consumer habits and demands to use innovative services and products will drive even more data traffic over already congested wireless networks and could cause even more heartburn for network operators and wireless users.
Today, there are already more wireless subscriptions than people in the U.S. as consumers continue adopting mobile products, services and technologies at a record clip. This explosion in wireless data growth is straining network capacity. In fact, the Federal Communications Commission predicts mobile network demands will exceed current spectrum capacity as early as next year. In 2011 alone, wireless data traffic grew more than 130% and looking ahead, Cisco predicts there will be 2 billion networked mobile devices in the U.S. by 2015. A snapshot of consumer usage and demand foretells a continued and escalating network capacity strain. Since apps were first introduced five years ago, for example, more than 25 billion apps have been downloaded from Apple’s app store alone. And according to Flurry, there were 25 billion Android and iOS downloads in 2011. That’s a 300% increase from 2010. Consumers want individualized entertainment; Pandora launched in 2000 and today more than 100 million people in the United States have registered to use the personalized radio stations. Merchants want seamless and wireless options to collect payments; Square, which offers businesses a wireless point of sale for accepting credit cards, was founded in 2009 and today boasts more than 800,000 customers.
With consumers increasingly streaming video and music, sharing high-resolution photographs and downloading gaming apps, it is not surprising we are taxing network capacity. North American wireless networks already are running at 80 percent capacity, compared to 65 percent for the rest of the world, as operators work around the clock to squeeze as much capacity as possible out of the networks. Back in 1984, for example, there were just 599 cell towers in the U.S. Today, there are over 256,000. And the networks keep evolving, maximizing capacity and delivering faster speeds. In fact, by 2014, the number of 4G LTE users in the United States will exceed the number of LTE subscribers in Europe and Asia combined.
For its part, the wireless innovation community is working hard to meet this technical challenge. Since 1985, wireless network providers alone have invested over $322 billion to build out and upgrade our nation’s wireless networks. Those same providers have committed tens of billions of research and development dollars to advance new technologies that can maximize efficiency and upgrade our country’s mobile infrastructure to meet booming demand. The fact is, however, neither innovators, nor technology, nor venture capital alone can solve the looming constraints on our wireless networks. To keep pace with growing consumer demand, more mobile spectrum must be brought online quickly. Spectrum fuels wireless connectivity, but the nation's wireless networks are shuddering under consumer demand. Today, policymakers are being challenged to make more spectrum available for mobile and help enable robust wireless network investment and innovation. This duty falls squarely in the government’s wheelhouse. One year ago, President Obama set the right goal in his State of the Union Address: Connecting 98% of America to the opportunities of the high-speed mobile Internet. Now it’s time for government leaders to step up and deliver by eliminating barriers to investment and advancing policies that encourage the rapid deployment of high-speed mobile broadband.
The wireless community has made a massive down payment on the nation's mobile future—and our innovation community stands to do far more. Now it’s time for government to act to ensure the vibrant experience 300 million American wireless consumers have come to expect and will continue to demand.
Posted: 04/20/12 by Mobile Future Team
A recent study by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies examines how wireless technology can help improve our health, particularly in minority communities. The study, “Minorities, Mobile Broadband and the Management of Chronic Disease,” highlights the use of mobile devices and applications to help manage chronic diseases that disproportionately affect African Americans and Latinos. The study points out that as minorities lead the United States in smartphone adoption, mobile applications that address chronic disease management increases users access to vital health information.
To learn more, click here.
Posted: 04/12/12 by Jonathan Spalter
In January of 2011, President Obama's vision for the State of our Union included a bold objective of digital inclusion that could help virtually all Americans more fully participate in our connected economy. "Within the next five years," he pledged, "we will make it possible for business to deploy the next generation of high-speed wireless coverage to 98% of all Americans."
The ambitious declaration represented a solid follow-through on the lofty goals laid out in the FCC's National Broadband Plan nine months' prior. That plan included the essential objective of identifying 500 MHZ of additional mobile spectrum capacity to support exponential growth in the wireless web. The president's choice of the hallowed annual address to declare the drive to near-universal connectivity sent an unequivocal message: We mean business.
For that reason, you could hear a pin drop at a recent conference, when the following comment was made: "It's clear we aren't going to get close to the 300 MHz goal by 2015 laid out in the plan, never mind the longer-term goal of 500 MHz by 2020." Who said it? None other than Blair Levin, chief architect of the administration's National Broadband Plan.
What happened between the president's bully pulpit moment and Levin's bubble-bursting analysis? Congress recently authorized the Federal Communications Commission to proceed with voluntary incentive auctions, where those who hold these underutilized spectrum assets (largely broadcasters who were given spectrum by the government decades ago at no cost) can choose to put them up for auction and share in the billion-dollar proceeds. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has shown leadership in his efforts both to raise awareness about the need for more mobile spectrum as well as to identify underutilized broadcast spectrum holdings which can immediately be repurposed for use by America's wireless consumers. But this alone won't fill the gap. Spectrum cannot be manufactured. Technology is making it more efficient. But it remains a finite resource. Beyond the broadcasters, the other great bastion of underutilized spectrum lies within the federal government itself.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) recently released a report outlining a transition plan to reallocate underutilized government spectrum for commercial mobile broadband use. NTIA identified numerous federal agencies sitting atop prime swaths of wireless spectrum. The characteristics of the spectrum identified make it uniquely well-suited for use by American consumers and our economy and could be put to better use while other spectrum is designated for government use. This spectrum transfer can be accomplished in ways that will maintain our national security and efficient government operations, while simultaneously enhancing our economy, and reducing the deficit: a veritable policy trifecta.
Yet there is little sense of urgency. The government-led transition to make more mobile spectrum available will take many years, which could quickly translate into substantial consequences for American consumers, businesses of all sizes and our nation's technology leadership. Today, there are more wireless connections than people in our country. In addition to leading the world in mobile innovation, the U.S. also leads on a more ominous metric. North American wireless networks are running at 80% capacity, compared to the global average of 65%. If more spectrum is not brought online quickly, then dropped calls, slower downloads, failed applications and more will increasingly be the outcome of an environment that plunges quickly into greater and greater spectrum scarcity. According to the FCC, the first wave of these impacts could come as early as next year.
And, still we wait on Washington.
If answered, the call for 500 MHz of spectrum will allow a wide range of wireless competitors to provide their customers with the level of connectivity that both consumers and the American economy alike have come to expect -- and to rely upon.
The private sector is doing everything it can -- from investing in research into ways to use existing spectrum assets more efficiently to pursuing secondary market transactions that, if allowed by the federal government, can help meet near-term consumer needs. But the private sector alone cannot address the mounting challenge. Government, too, has to step up to the plate and free its own spectrum.
Any passing student of Washington knows that this transition is not likely to happen without substantial institutional resistance. Neither the FCC nor NTIA have the clout to break through the federal bureaucracy. That kind of imperative to act can only come from the top. Ultimately, the White House -- and likely the president himself -- will need to insist that government agencies act for the greater good and put their spectrum to better use for American consumers.
This will require the expense of political capital. Economically and politically, it is capital well spent. Today, U.S. consumers and businesses largely take our mobile connectivity for granted. It is incumbent on all political leaders to ensure this never changes. President Obama was right to set an ambitious objective. The time has come to deliver.
This article was originally published on Huffington Post.
Posted: 04/11/12 by Mobile Future Team
Consumer’s use of mobile devices to watch TV and movies has garnered attention lately as a NYTimes piece, A Ballooning Megabyte Budget, examines consumers increasing demand for wireless video streaming made possible by innovative mobile devices and increasingly fast network speeds. The Washington Post’s TV critic also recently shared his thoughts on consumers watching video programming on mobile devices as the “cut-the-cable” movement gains traction. With half of Americans owning a smartphone and tablet adoption on the rise, this trend shows no sign of slowing. But to meet this growing consumer demand, we're going to need more spectrum to support the mobile traffic. The FCC predicts we could run out of mobile spectrum as early as 2013 so there isn’t a minute to waste.
The U.S. government is starting the process now to reallocate both broadcast and government spectrum for mobile use, but the process will take years. The wireless community –network providers, handset manufacturers, app developers – are all working hard to meet the insatiable consumer demand for all things mobile, but now it's time for government to act as quickly as possible to free up more spectrum for mobile.
Posted: 04/09/12 by Mobile Future Team
On Friday, Politico’s Kim Hart (subscription required) took a look at President Obama’s broadband agenda. With mobile innovation charging ahead, Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter urged the White House to lead on these critical issues and meet the goals of the National Broadband Plan to ensure the United States benefits from a bright mobile future.
To learn more, click here.
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Tags: Competition, Consumer Awareness, Consumer Benefits, FCC, Huffington Post, Innovation, iPad , Mobile Future, Mobile Future Board, Jonathan Spalter, Mobile Phone, News, Smartphone, Spectrum, Tablets , Wireless Devices, Wireless Innovation, Looming Spectrum Crisis