The Hill News

Mobile broadband usage is projected to grow by 35 times from 2009 to 2014. The explosion of wireless broadband demand created by the growth of smartphones, tablets, and wirelessly connected laptops will fast outstrip the current capacity of the wireless spectrum. The demand placed on the wireless spectrum by a single smartphone is the equivalent of 24 traditional cellular phones; a tablet, 122 cell phones.

For this reason, as a part of the 2009 National Broadband Plan, the Federal Communications Commission is working towards making 500 megahertz of additional spectrum available over the next decade, 300 megahertz of which will be made available by 2014. The government, however, remains embroiled in the process of developing a plan to repurpose spectrum from its current uses for wireless broadband.

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