American Cellular Companies Clamor For Fresh Spectrum

alphadogg writes "No one will ever say that America's wireless carriers are too proud to beg. This year's Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association Wireless trade show in New Orleans seemed less like an industry gathering at times and more like an infomercial dedicated to forcing the government's hand to free up more spectrum. Start with CTIA President and CEO Steve Largent, who dedicated the vast majority of his introductory keynote address to discussing the challenges carriers will face if they don't get fresh spectrum to use within the next few years. Execs from T-Mobile, Verizon and others also beat the drum. Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead, for example, said: 'Innovation is at risk today due to the spectrum shortage that we face. If additional spectrum is not available in the near-term, mobile data will exceed capacity by 2015.'"

Re:Mobile Data cant exceed capacity

[Stewie241]

I can't speak for Europe, but my impression is that data transfer is a lot more expensive here than it is in the US. From AT&T in the US $30 gets you a 3 gig data plan where in Canada that same $30 gets you a 1 gig data plan.

For the same spend in the US you get three times the data capacity.

So if by doing it wrong you mean the carriers in the US are not charging as much, then you're right.

Verizon

[DaMattster]

It has been reported before that Verizon Wireless and AT&T are both begging for spectrum while they are currently holding spectrum that they haven't even used yet! This sounds like they want to grab as much as possible only to crowd others out of the market. The CTIA is an industry lobby group and is not there to benefit the consumer no matter how much they claim to benefit both.