Thanks to Ann Higgins for a heads up on the FCC and their plans (re-plans) for spectrum. Goal Two of the National Broadband Plan is…

The United States should lead the world in mobile innovation, with the fastest and most extensive wireless networks of any nation.

I think we have our jobs cut out for ourselves if that’s our plan. The FCC came out with a follow up report this week that I think provides some good news/bad news in terms of this goal. The good news is that we’re using more and more mobile in the US. The report found that…

• 42% of consumers are estimated to own a smartphone, up from 16% three years ago
• PC aircard users consume 1.4 gigabytes (GB) per month — 56 times the amount of data used by a regular cell phone

More people are accessing mobile broadband; and folks online are using it more and more. So when it comes to adoption we’re there. Greater adoption will lead to greater innovation. The bad news is that the spectrum originally specified by the FCC in the National Broadband Plan has already been determined to be too little. As the FCC press release on the new report states…

In his opening remarks today, FCC Chairman Genachowski stated, “The explosive growth in mobile communications is outpacing our ability to keep up. If we don’t act to update our spectrum policies for the 21st century, we’re going to run into a wall – a spectrum crunch – that will stifle American innovation and economic growth and cost us the opportunity to lead the world in mobile communications.”

The expectation is that we’ll have a deficit of 300 megahertz within 5 years. And the report indicates that historically it take 6-13 years to make new spectrum available. So much of the funding for broadband projects and initiatives mentioned in the National Broadband Plan comes from the sale of spectrum; I wonder how that will fit in.

On a not necessarily related topic, the FCC also annoucned the formation of their Technological Advisory Council. There are almost 40 members on the Council; it includes representatives from telecommunications companies, software companies, service providers and broadcasters. We’ll see how they can take on the spectrum issue.