CTIA: FCC’s Genachowski outlines mobile broadband priorities

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Mobile is key to the future of broadband, but the wireless industry is facing a growing crisis as mobile Internet usage overwhelms the spectrum available today, Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, warned CTIA IT & Entertainment attendees in a keynote address today. After just three months in office, Genachowski today outlined the FCC’s four-pronged plan for the future of mobile broadband.

First and most important is closing the spectrum gap by increasing the amount of spectrum available, Genachowski said. When every wireless user has a high-end smartphone, data usage projections are skyrocketing up to 400 petabytes per month by 2013, up from just 6 petabytes per month today. Spectrum is the oxygen for these mobile networks, he said, and while short-term availability is adequate, the long-term outlook is different.

“The biggest threat to 4G in America is the looming spectrum crisis,” Genachowski said. There will be a three-fold increase in commercial spectrum coming online after last year’s 700 megahertz auction, but mobile broadband will grow 30 times that, creating a 10-fold gap. The FCC will support spectrum efficiency options and look at ways to offload fixed broadband to free up capacity, Genachowski said. Inherent in this goal is the need to reallocate spectrum currently being used for other purposes. There is no “easy pickings,” he said, but there is also no choice.

Genachowski’s second priority was expediting 4G rollouts by removing the obstacles to robust and ubiquitous 4G networks. To the applause of keynote attendees, he acknowledged that tower-sitting is an issue ripe for action. He also said that moving forward, the FCC is proposing a “shot clock” method to speed the process. The FCC will also look to promote the sharing of best practices and develop fair rules of the road for an open Internet, which was priority number three.

“Communications technologies are complex and rapidly changing, nowhere more than mobile, and my time in business has convinced me that the last thing we want is heavy-handed and prescriptive regulation,” Genachowski said. “Our goal is to empower innovators, not lawyers.”

Empowering consumers by supporting a vibrant, transparent and competitive marketplace, although the means of doing so have been disputed, was Genachowski’s final priority. Genachowski applauded AT&T’s announcement that it would open its network to VoIP and Verizon Wireless’ announced partnership with Google as ways that carriers are empowering consumers already. He said that the FCC’s goal is to ensure consumers are armed with the information they need to make the market work.

“We will communicate through active, ongoing and forthright dialogue – not through hidden messages,” Genachowski said. “You may not always agree, but we will always be clear, and you can take my words and the words of the FCC at face value. When we say we haven’t decided what we are going to do with handset exclusivity and we want your input, we mean it. The same applies to an open Internet.”