Administration Falling Short on Spectrum Goals, CTIA Says
The FCC got projections right on the explosive growth ahead for mobile data traffic in its 2010 National Broadband Plan, but the government has fallen short in meeting the plan’s goals for making more spectrum available for wireless broadband, CTIA…
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said in a report dated Monday. The plan called for 500 MHz to be reallocated to broadband by 2020, with 300 MHz for mobile broadband by 2015, but only 135 MHz have been cleared, less than half the 300 MHz goal, CTIA said. “Looking ahead, projections predict that mobile data traffic by 2019 will be nearly six times the 2014 amount,” CTIA said. “The U.S. commercial wireless industry cannot meet this explosive growth simply through improved engineering, more infrastructure, and the spectrum that is currently scheduled to come online. Rather, the government, industry, and other stakeholders must come together to find additional spectrum bands that can be repurposed from existing uses to mobile broadband.” CTIA President Meredith Baker said the government needs a plan beyond 2020. “The FCC’s thorough projections of our mobile usage from 2010 to 2014 were extraordinarily close to reality,” she said. “To meet the next wave of exponential growth, it is crucial that the government, industry and other stakeholders work together to find more licensed spectrum opportunities.”