Special Report

AT&T official warns of ‘spectrum crisis’

Wireless carriers, including AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint, are warning of an impending “spectrum crisis”.

They say the federal government needs to act quickly to free up wireless spectrum so they can handle the explosion in mobile data traffic growth that has occurred in recent years.  Unless that happens quickly, those companies say the result will be slower or spotty connections.

In an interview with Brownfield at this week’s IDEAg Interconnectivity Conference, AT&T regional vice president for external affairs, Beth Canuteson, said that her company has seen a 20,000 percent increase in data traffic in the past five years.  And she says it’s estimated if data usage continues to climb at the current pace, the wireless carriers will run out of spectrum in seven years.

The solution, Canuteson says, is for the FCC to accelerate its plan to free up more wireless spectrum.

AUDIO: Beth Canuteson (5:55 MP3)

It should be noted that not everyone agrees that a crisis is imminent.  Some scientists and engineers accuse the major wireless companies of being overly-dramatic about the situation.   They say those companies are simply trying to protect their business from competitors.