FCC Chair Touts 'All of the Above' Spectrum Plan

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski outlined an "all-of-the-above" strategy for promoting mobile broadband, touting an array of initiatives underway at the agency to free up more spectrum and use it more efficiently, and to broaden access to high-speed wireless service.

In a keynote address here at CTIA's Wireless 2012 show, Chairman Genachowski reiterated the call for shifting more segments of spectrum to wireless carriers to bolster their voice and data networks to manage the proliferating volume of traffic from smartphones and tablets. "We won't seize the opportunities before us if we don't tackle this capacity challenge," Chairman Genachowski says. "The kinds of challenges we have in mobile are the kind we want -- challenges stemming from growing mobile demand." He added, "I'm sure no one will disagree -- better these challenges than the opposite. Better these challenges than shrinking demand." He announced a new spectrum-sharing program through which the FCC and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the division of the Commerce Department that oversees government spectrum, will begin a review of government-controlled airwaves with an eye toward enabling commercial usage of the 1755 MHz to 1780 MHz LTE band. Paired with a segment in the 2155 MHz to 2180 MHz range, the initiative would aim to bring 50 MHz of paired spectrum to auction within three years, Genachowski says, touting it as an example of the creative proposals that will need to emerge in order to address the supply-demand imbalance that has attended the mobile data crush.