The chairman of the FCC Julius Genachowski warned today that the mobile industry was facing "a looming crisis" over spectrum.

Speaking at the CTIA wireless conference he pointed out that the government had increased the amount of spectrum available three-fold, when the volume of data traffic has increased 30-fold.

"What happens when every mobile user has an iPhone, a Palm Pre, a BlackBerry Tour or whatever the next device is?" he said.

"What happens when we quadruple the number of subscribers with mobile broadband on their laptops or netbooks?"

He told the assembled delegates that smarter wireless networking would save around 40 per cent of current spectrum use. The government would also be moving much more quickly to reallocate unused spectrum.

Genachowski no doubt sees this as an olive branch to the industry from the government after the FCC announced plans to enforce network neutrality. One doubts it'll work, given the strength of feeling on the issue.

08 Oct 2009