@ CTIA: FCC chairman supports data roaming, warns of 'looming spectrum crisis'

ORLANDO, Fla.—Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski’s speech to a packed CTIA International Wireless 2011 crowd in the Day 1 keynote speech touched on mostly previously announced initiatives, but Genachowski did provide a few new hints about where he stands on data roaming; he wants it.
Although Genachowski said the framework of any mandated roaming regulation has yet to be decided, he made a special point of noting that mandated roaming agreements were important to voice services, and that many operators depend on roaming agreements for their own success.
The FCC plans to address data roaming mandates at its next scheduled meeting, Genachowski told a standing-room-only audience. Data roaming will enable healthy competition between operators, which produces innovation, lowers prices and provides better services to customers. “The framework details have to be worked out,” Genachowski said. The commentary will be welcome news to rural wireless associations, which have been pretty vocal lately in deriding the lack of mandated data roaming for 3G and 4G services.
In a wide-ranging speech that covered the fantastic growth of tablets and smart devices, the economic contributions wireless service brings to the American public and what he calls “the looming spectrum crisis,” Genachowski used the podium to continue to push for voluntary wireless spectrum auctions, where TV and satellite broadcasters could turn in unused spectrum and receive a portion of the funds the government gets from auctioning that spectrum. The initiative has been met with suspicion from TV broadcasters, which are calling for an independent assessment of spectrum availability in the United States. “Even with the healthy debate, I haven’t seen a better idea” than using a market-based approach to freeing up unused spectrum, Genachoswki noted.
Failing to act quickly will not only cost the United States an estimated $30 billion that could be generated from such spectrum auction, other estimates peg “broad consumer benefits” from increased productivity and the like at 10 times that to the U.S. economy. Thus not unleashing that spectrum could be a $300 billion lost opportunity, Genachowski said.
“America’s global competitors are not standing still. American leadership in the emerging economy is not a birthright,” he told the crowd, adding that mobile is critical to U.S. leadership in the 21st Century. Products and services need to be developed here and exported to the rest of the world, he noted.
Not surprisingly, the chairman said he would not comment on the proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA Inc. by AT&T Inc. The FCC and the Department of Justice both have to approve the purchase.