The Short Names

With the FCC cracking down on net neutrality and re-evaluating the country’s broadband plans, the CTIA has ramped up its own campaign to see to it that the wireless industry gets what it is looking for. Today, CTIA President and CEO Steve Largent issued a statement to the FCC, explaining that innovation and competition is dependent upon having access to more spectrum. “As networks are upgraded to add capacity and greater capabilities, handsets are then developed to take advantage of next generation networks, application and content developers then create new content to take advantage of new handset capabilities, and ultimately, consumers demand more.  It’s a cycle that never ends as long as spectrum is available,” Largent wrote.

In the statement, the CTIA asked the government to immediately identify and allocate up to 800 MHz of additional spectrum over the next six years. “We are proud that the mobile wireless industry is providing broadband access where you want it, when you want it, but we are facing a perfect storm where demand may outpace supply.”

Last week, T-Mobile asked the FCC to release unused spectrum that was not successfully sold in the last auction. The company is also reportedly in talks with Clearwire (NSDQ: CLWR) over its next egg of airwaves, and AT&T recently purchased spectrum from Billionaire and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) co-founder Paul Allen in its quest to roll-out 4G and solve its well-publicized bandwidth crunch.

Related

• Feds Say There’s Not Enough Spectrum For Future Smartphone Demands
• There’s At Least One Wireless Company That’s For Net Neutrality
• FCC Lays Out Blueprint For The Open Internet