The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the US regulator, has backed calls for further mobile broadband spectrum to be made available in the US, reports Reuters. “A key input is spectrum,” Blair Levin, the top broadband official at the FCC told industry executives and lobbyists yesterday. “There is consensus in the record; there is not enough of it.” Levin is spearheading a new FCC initiative aimed at extending broadband to US citizens who are currently underserved because they live in rural areas. One of the options reportedly being considered is to release spectrum currently being held by government agencies, such as the US Department of Defense.

Levin also said that further bandwidth would be required to support the growing popularity of data-centric smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone (offered exclusively in the US by AT&T) and Palm’s Pre (offered by Sprint). “The demand curves from uses like smartphones suggest it’s going to increase dramatically, for spectrum,” Levin said. CTIA, the US mobile industry trade body, also stepped up calls for new spectrum to be released and for a timetable to be put into place. “We can’t wait eight to 11 years for additional spectrum,” CTIA President Steve Largent told reporters.