Mobile Future - a coalition of businesses, non-profit organizations and individuals interested in and dedicated to advocating for an environment in which innovations in wireless technology and services are enabled and encouraged - has pulled together a rather interesting infographic. The premise behind the infographic is that the total overall wireless spectrum that has been allocated for use to date is severely limited, and will soon begin to impact mobile usage.
What is perhaps the underlying message here is that although mobility has already exploded into a global phenomenon, it is never the less still a young industry with huge levels of growth ahead of it. The problem, as Mobile Future sees it, is that we are already beginning to hit the boundaries of what is currently possible in terms the wireless data usage we want - and will need - and the spectrum capacity (allocated airwaves) that exists for meeting those needs.
The more astute among us may have already figured out that this at least one reason behind why the two wireless giants - AT&T and Verizon Wireless - are rapidly moving away from unlimited wireless data plans, attaching potentially heavy costs to data plan overages, and encouraging the use of shared data plans. The Mobile Future graphic is certainly interesting - it essentially points out that the current collection of roughly 330 million wireless subscriptions in the United States are running on all of about 16 percent of the overall available spectrum.
Jonathan Spalter, chairman of Mobile Future, notes that "With consumers already starting to see the affects from near capacity mobile networks, it is critical that government act swiftly and responsibly to free up more spectrum to help keep pace with exploding consumer demand for wireless connectivity."
Yes, Spectrum is Limited
Visually delivering that message is the point of the graphic. We have to give Mobile Future credit for getting a potential problem out in the open in a way that is clearly understandable. It is true that the U.S. government has assigned just 409.5 MHz of spectrum to support commercial wireless services, and that the wireless network operators have access to just under 16 percent of these critical airwaves. A significant majority – nearly 85 percent – of the crucial spectrum needed to support consumer demand for wireless data is currently occupied primarily by government agencies and television broadcasters.
We need to be clear here - the issue isn't that spectrum overall doesn't exist - it does. The issue is that, at least according to Mobile Future, that available spectrum is not being re-allocated quickly enough to meet today's still modest needs and is certainly not being reallocated quickly enough to ensure we are prepared to meet tomorrow's far more demanding needs. Tomorrow, in this case, is right around the corner, so to speak.
Mobile Future puts an exclamation point on its argument by further noting that by 2016 there will be three billion mobile devices in the U.S. alone (which translates to nine devices for every man, woman and child). Mobile Future believes the time to act is now, while we are still able to plan proactively and cost-effectively, rather than to have to react tomorrow - which will lead to poor planning and far more costly solutions.
It's More than Spectrum Allocation However
Mobile Future does get its point across, but there is a bit more to the story. Long Term Evolution (LTE), true 4G, and LTE-Advanced are not technologies noted in the infographic. Yet, these are crucial technologies in that they allow existing spectrum to be used in far more efficient ways than the preponderance of today's 3G technologies do. The same spectrum will become far more efficient - far more data bandwidth can be allocated, much faster uplinks and downlinks will be generated, and many more users can be accommodated within the same amount of spectrum that currently exists, as these new technologies are deployed.
Our position is that the reality isn't quite as dire as Mobile Future makes it out to be…yet.
That said, the key concern to note here is that spectrum allocation involves two major things: money and politics. The amount of money that will be generated through spectrum re-allocation is staggering, and the amount of politics that will come into play at every turn because of that staggering number of dollars will be overwhelming. These are the two real issues. The following is worth repeating:
Mobile Future believes the time to act is now, while we are still able to plan proactively and cost-effectively, rather than to have to react tomorrow - which will lead to poor planning and far more costly solutions.
We can define "politics" as "poor planning and costly solutions." Politics is never about proactive planning and cost-effective solutions. So Mobile Future is probably right to be as concerned as it is and to sound the direst of alarms today.
The Infographic
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Edited by
Allison Boccamazzo 
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