Spectrum allocation key to mobile growth

The development of mobile broadband can help drive economic growth

The mobile industry is calling for governments around the world to ensure that the right regulatory frameworks and the necessary spectrum are available for the development of mobile broadband to help drive economic growth.

Speaking at a press conference at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, GSM Association (GSMA) chief executive Rob Conway was joined by mobile industry bosses from Ericsson, VimpelCom, Telecom Italia, Telenor Group and China Mobile, as well as the Earth Institute at Columbia University, to highlight the need for a quarter of the 'digital dividend', the spectrum freed by the move from analogue to digital TV, to be assigned to mobile.

The GSMA and others are also urging governments to adopt a harmonised approach to the spectrum that will allow the same devices to be used in many different countries, and enable vendors to achieve economies of scale.

Alexander Izosimov, chairman of the GSMA and chief executive of Russia's VimpelCom, described mobile as the "new lifeblood of the global economy", and said that additional spectrum is "not a luxury but an absolute necessity" for future growth.

The panel saw Europe as the most progressive digital dividend market, pointing to Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, France and the UK as having committed to allocating some of the spectrum for mobile.

A recent report by Leonard Waverman, professor of economics at the London Business School, and the Law and Economics Consulting Group, claimed that the release of new spectrum for mobile broadband services in 2009 could add the equivalent of $211bn (£148bn) to China's GDP and the equivalent of $95bn (£66bn) to India's GDP.

It would also create hundreds of thousands of jobs, encourage new businesses across the value chain, improve productivity and boost consumer spending, according to the report.