President Obama moved Monday to double the spectrum available for the country’s mobile devices. He launched a process to identify unneeded government space that could be freed up and eventually turned over to private industry.
“The new era in global technology will only happen if there is adequate spectrum available to support the forthcoming myriad of new wireless devices, networks and applications that will drive the new economy,” the Obama wrote in a memo to government agencies.
In its National Broadband Plan, the Federal Communicatons Commission said optimizing current spectrum and getting additional spectrum space is vital to speeding web and video access and development of new technologies.
Without the additional space, it warned the U.S. could find itself in a “crunch” unable to fully experience the advantages of mobile devices.
Some estimates of wireless network use say the amount of information flowing on the networks has increased 250 percent per year, with the data expected to increase 20 to 45 times 2009 levels in the next five years.
The FCC wants an addition 500 megahertz of additional space freed up over the next 10 years, with some coming from government and some from unused spectrum at TV stations. The National Association of Broadcasters has fought taking the spectrum from TV stations.
Obama memo today is aimed at the government part.
He asked the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to work with state, federal and local agencies to identify unneeded federal government spectrum that can be made available immediately or by taking steps to better optimize governments use spectrum space.
The White House is looking at the possibility of auctioning off some of that new spectrum space as early as this fall.
