Whitespace devices, LTE, femtocells, Wi-Fi automatic handover, optimized backhaul networks: wireless operators already distributes a wide range of techniques to increase the speed of the flow of data to our Smartphones, and equipment manufacturers are showing many more at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week.
But all this still won't be sufficient to ensure that the data continues to flow, as the number of Smartphone rises from 500 million to almost two billion by 2015, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), an agency of the United Nations.
ITU wants Governments to act now, additional spectrum licenses for mobile communication networks and making it easier for operators of fixed networks intended to roll out fibre links that mobile operators need to connect to the growing number of mobile phone base stations.
"Mobile operators have invested billions to upgrade and improve capacity and performance of their networks, but in some cities with a high rate of use, as San Francisco, New York and London, we're seeing more users frustrated by chronic problems of network outages," Secretary General Mr Hamadoun Touré ITU warned Friday.
If help more government intervention is questionable: for the city of high-use Touré CITES, Governments are already well ahead of the pack.
One of the strategies that he suggests, forcing TV stations to switch to digital transmitters more efficient, freeing up spectrum for other uses, has already been adopted in the United States and United Kingdom. In 2008, the Government of the United States to auction former analogue TV spectrum in the band 700 MHz and Verizon Wireless has already started to offer its mobile broadband service LTE (Long Term Evolution) in New York, San Francisco and other cities.
The United Kingdom too has analog TV transmitters turned off (France will follow suit this year) and is the roll-out of fibre-optic connections at home: as many as 600,000 Uk homes could be connected to fiber later this year.
While analogue TV spectrum was an easy target, other frequencies may be released for mobile communications. For convenient mass produce mobile telephones and modem, but the same frequencies must be available on all continents. This availability is decided at the World Radiocommunication Conference, a three-week event intergovernmental-long, organized by the ITU every three or four years. The last WRC ended on November 16, 2007: the next begins on January 23, 2012, in Geneva, and mobile operators will undoubtedly keep a very close eye on the debates.
Peter Sayer covers open source software, the legislation on intellectual property and General technology breaking news for IDG News Service. Send comments and suggestions of news to Peter at peter_sayer@idg.com.
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