RESOURCES
Mobile Future Publications
This report examines how the next wave of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and other connected devices will further accelerate mobile opportunity and exacerbate the looming spectrum crunch. The report authored by Jim Kohlenberger, former White House policy advisor and Mobile Future advisory board member, points to a nation on the verge of a wireless-driven technological revolution fueled by a vast sea of breakthrough connected devices offering astonishing new digital opportunities.
Take a tour of key consumer and technology mobile trends in an eventful 2011, highlighting the staggering growth in consumer mobile usage across a dizzying array of applications and social media platforms. Accompanying paper to Mobile Year in Review 2011 video.
Mobile Future and Thomas Hazlett, Professor of Law & Economics, George Mason University and Managing Partner, Arlington Economics LLC, released a new report, Radio Spectrum for a Hungry Wireless World, which finds that more spectrum for wireless networks is needed now in order to meet the unprecedented and continually rising consumer and enterprise demand for mobile devices and to maintain the levels of intense competition in today’s mobile market. The report discusses the many positive impacts of spectrum-based mobile communications and sums up an analysis of spectrum policy with three key lessons learned.
The fiercely competitive nature of the United States wireless marketplace continues to fuel cutting-edge innovation, providing American consumers with the newest and most advanced mobile technologies. As growth in the wireless sector evolves, consumers stand to reap far-reaching benefits of this dynamic mobile economy.
This new study reveals the crucial role mobile broadband can play in boosting the nation’s economy if additional spectrum is allocated for wireless networks.
This report explores data from 14 countries around the world and discusses why Americans, more than consumers in any other country, use the newest, most advanced handsets in the world and what that means for wireless users and mobile innovation overall.
Wireless technology expert Peter Rysavy presents findings from a new report analyzing the consequences of failing to make new spectrum available in the marketplace. The report discusses how spectrum relates to network capacity, how applications and devices create heavy data traffic, and the resulting spectrum shortage once available capacity has been consumed. Rysavy concludes that a widespread spectrum shortage would cause unpredictable network service and unreliable performance for consumers at potentially higher connectivity costs. This could be particularly detrimental to minorities and low-income Americans who primarily rely on their mobile phones to access the Internet.
This paper offers an overview of the many ways competition and choice define and drive mobile innovation throughout the United States and makes the case for smart, nimble and constructive 21st century policies. It is our hope that it can help illuminate a constructive path forward—one rooted in a common understanding of what it will take to continue this essential mobile momentum that, today, makes our nation the envy of a connected, wireless world.
For many Americans, today's fast-emerging combination of robust hardware, state-of-the-art wireless networks and innovative, diverse applications can allow devices to achieve impressive levels of personal customization that can be tailored to meet any individual's unique needs and preferences.
The wireless sector’s success is a model for the 21st century—powerfully demonstrating what a collaborative approach between consumers, policymakers and a competitive and innovative industry can achieve for the nation.
As the U.S. develops a national broadband strategy, much is at stake for American consumers, our country’s economy, as well as future innovation and its many social benefits. Complex issues from infrastructure deployment to digital literacy to consumer-friendly tax reform all play into U.S. efforts to close the digital divide and usher in a new era of innovation and opportunity. Equally important to ensuring these benefits are shared throughout our society is a deeper understanding of the unique needs, challenges and connected behavior of diverse Americans.
New network neutrality regulations proposed by the FCC could slow the growth of the broadband sector, potentially affecting as many as 1.5 million jobs, both union and non-union, by the end of the decade.
As the Federal Communications Commission considers applying “net neutrality” regulations to the wireless Internet, it has sought broad public comment on the implications of such rules for consumers and the networks which support them. The imposition of any such new rules will have a variety of impacts across the Internet ecosystem and particularly on wireless network operations and capabilities. Thus, it is critically important to the future of the mobile Internet that the FCC conduct a detailed and clear‐eyed assessment of how the proposed new regulations will impact the engineering, operational, and technological requirements of current and next generation wireless networks.
A myriad of revolutions have occurred in the mobile handset market over the past twenty years. Although casual observers have often claimed that a particular innovation was here to stay, they commonly are proven wrong by unforeseen developments in this fast-changing marketplace. Handset partnerships, which encourage risk taking, increase choice, and frequently lower prices, should be applauded by the government. In contrast, government regulation that would require forced sharing of a successful break-through technology is likely to stifle innovation and hurt consumer welfare.
Wireless Facts
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U.S. Subscribers with broadband access on mobile devices went from 3M in ‘06 to 73M in ‘08
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Wireless data traffic is expected to grow 100 times faster than voice traffic over the next 10 years
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1 in 3 African Americans and Hispanic Americans use a mobile device to access the Internet daily
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The mobile technology sector today employs nearly 2.7 million Americans
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Connected mobile smartphones today generate 30 times the data traffic of basic-feature cell phones
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The coming wave of mobile Internet connectivity will integrate 10 billion people.
Associations and Government Agencies