Communications Day wrote this week that the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association has called out for timely government action on spectrum delivery to capitalise on surging mobile demand.

Speaking at the CommsDay Summit, AMTA CEO Chris Althaus reiterated that “AMTA strongly supports the government target digital dividend of 126Mhz of contiguous UHF spectrum in the range of 694-820 MHz. AMTA also contends that the maximum value of the digital dividend will be achieved when the full 126 MHz is used to deliver mobile telephony and broadband services in Australia.”

Althaus pointed to AMTA research detailing the growth of 3G subscriptions in Australia by 88% in 07 -08 and a further 44% in 08-09 – accounting for more than 50% of all mobile subscriptions – as evidence of the need for further spectrum allocations in this space. “Mobile broadband subscriptions increased by 162% in 08-09 to 2.1 million and made up 25% of all internet subscribers in June of last year,” he added.

He also cited an AMTA and Access Economics study that revealed that the mobile telecommunications sector made a total contribution of A$14.20 billion to the economy. “The study reveals that the sector is punching above its weight inasmuch as it contributes more indirectly (A$7.63 billion) than it does directly (A$6.47 billion). It is a key enabling technology,” Althaus explained.

AMTA is expecting 70% of mobile data traffic to be video related. “Volumes of that level are going to place high stresses on infrastructure, including radio frequency spectrum,” concluded Althaus.