LIVE FROM CTIA WIRELESS 2012: Julius Genachowski (pictured), chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), today talked-up the role of the mobile industry in driving growth in the US economy – while also noting that there are challenges ahead.

Speaking at the event in New Orleans today, he said: “whether it is our GDP, the apps economy, or job creation, it is clear that wireless innovation and investment continues to help lead us into recovery, as it has done for the past three years.”


Genachowski continued: “what is particularly rewarding to all those involved in mobile-related industries is that the US is leading this revolution. We have regained our global leadership in mobile. American-designed apps and services are being adopted faster than any others, both inside and outside our borders. After years of seeing countries in Asia and elsewhere developing popular mobile applications ahead of us, the US mobile industry is now the envy of the world.”

Included in this is the country’s strong position in LTE, where it has led the way in terms of widespread commercial deployments. According to the FCC head, 64 percent of the world’s subscribers for this technology are in the US.

“These successes are worth celebrating. But of course there is no rest for the weary. We must recognise that these successes are creating new challenges that put US competitiveness and future opportunity at risk,” he continued.

Demand for mobile services is set to outstrip the capacity available on mobile networks, meaning that “we won’t seize this opportunity ahead of us, if we don’t tackle this capacity challenge.” In addition, there is a need to make sure that mobile broadband access is “truly universal,” in order to drive economic growth. Genachoswki said that the US mobile industry is operating at "80 percent capacity" already.

“The kinds of challenges we have in mobile are the kind we want – challenges stemming from growing mobile demand,” the regulator said. “America needs to meet these new challenges in a way that preserves the ingredients that have powered the mobile industry’s success – innovation, investment, competition, and a focus on consumers.”

Returning to the theme of opportunities in the industry, Genachowski noted two efforts that could help address the need for capacity: the sharing of spectrum between government and commercial users, and small cells.

With regard to the former, he said that “it is becoming increasingly hard to free-up clear blocks of spectrum and reallocate them from government to commercial.  It would be counterproductive to limit ourselves to just two choices – complete reallocation or nothing.”

And for the latter, he said that “small cells are a big deal. By increasing the density of network deployments several fold, small cells are the key to bridging the supply/demand gap that is sustainable.”