CELLULAR TO CRUSADE FOR ADDITIONAL LICENSED SPECTRUM

摘要

The CTIA will in the next few weeks start a campaign seeking new licensed spectrum, said Chris Guttman-McCabe, the group's vice president of regulatory affairs. Wireless will be looking at all spectrum below 3 GHz, including government and broadcast spectrum, he said. The CTIA will make the case that wireless carriers are "unbelievably efficient users of spectrum," but more is needed to meet the country's broadband needs. There were 2.2 trillion minutes of wireless use in the U.S. in a recent 12-month period, Guttman-McCabe said, up 300 billion from the previous period. He predicted that growth will continue as 3G and other broadband services spread. The amount of licensed wireless spectrum is "staggeringly unacceptable," he said. nnThe first indications of the campaign probably will come in early December, when the CTIA files comments on spectrum caps, Guttman- McCabe said. But the big effort probably will start early in the new year, possibly with events including a major one for journalists, he said: "We are really going to push this thing." Guttman-McCabe wouldn't identify specific spectrum blocks as targets. He said anything below 3 GHz would be useful and frequencies below 1 GHz are "prime beachfront spectrum." A wireless industry source said the campaign wouldn't represent a change in policy for CTIA but seems simply to be a "more targeted and aggressive initiative to focus on the spectrum needs of carriers."