A message of Hope: Opening remarks at the GSMA Congress Asia by FCC Chairman

29 November 2011

by Barry McKeown

Following on from my last posting on OFCOM and their Net Neutrality Policy Statement,  I indicated that as the Chancellor is giving his Autumn Statement, today, on the state of the economy it is worthwhile turning to the opening remarks of the FCC Chairman Genachowski for a message of Hope. The issue from here on in is identifying and overcoming the vested interests at play and holding the UK Government ministers to their words.

I have extracted the following eight comments as indicative of the speech itself:

*All of us are here to answer the same question:  How do we seize the opportunities of mobile broadband? 

*First, we must seek to ensure that everyone has access to robust mobile broadband.

*The next priority in seizing the opportunities of mobile broadband is ensuring that mobile broadband is ubiquitous and robust.  To do that, we need to tend to not only our physical infrastructure, but also our invisible infrastructure – spectrum.

*Demand for spectrum is rapidly outstripping supply, and that demand will only increase. 

*We must also prioritize and set concrete global targets for the allocation of additional globally harmonized spectrum for mobile broadband. 

*Therefore, the upcoming ITU World Radiocommunication Conference should ensure that there is a conference agenda item for mobile broadband at WRC-15, and between these two world conferences the mobile industry should work with governments to find additional spectrum to alleviate the upcoming spectrum crunch.  We believe this would best be achieved in a Joint Task Group at the ITU-R.

*Earlier I mentioned that the emergence of cloud computing creates enormous opportunities for mobile.  The free flow of data across national borders is essential to unlock the great promise of both mobile computing and cloud computing, a nascent, global industry of around $68 billion.  Imagine where this industry will be in just two years, much less five or ten.

*Working together, we can drive improvements in education, savings in health care costs, and greater energy efficiency.

All of the above comments are worthy of a separate posting each, which if I have the time I shall attempt but overall they address the themes I am commenting on in this Blog.
 
However, these selective comments of the Chairman’s opening remarks are worth putting into context and appreciating in terms of the full text which if the reader has time to peruse would, I believe, be well worthwhile. Accordingly I have posted them as follows and I would ask the reader to further consider for themselves if anyone from OFCOM could deliver such a statement of hope or, indeed. be asked to deliver one in the first instance?:

REMARKS OF FCC CHAIRMAN JULIUS GENACHOWSKI
AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY
GSMA MOBILE ASIA CONGRESS
HONG KONG
NOVEMBER 16, 2011

Thank you, Anne Bouverot and GSMA, for inviting me to speak.  It’s a pleasure to be at GSMA’s Mobile Asia Congress. 

As this conference makes clear, the world is going mobile. There are roughly four billion mobile subscribers worldwide with about six billion subscriptions.  China alone added thirty million subscriptions in just the last quarter, and India added another twenty-one million. Global mobile penetration now tops 80%, and it recently passed 100% in the U.S.