The Age and SMH ran a story by Dan Oakes this week “Radio Spectrum Goes Mobile” speculating on the outcome of the Government’s deliberations on Digital Dividend spectrum.

Oakes suggested that the soon to be released Green Paper would deliver an outcome that favoured the mobile sector in allocating significant new spectrum for use by mobile operators while at the same time providing the necessary spectrum to support the transition to digital television.

While this commentary is interesting, the industry and AMTA remain concerned that the policy processes to determine the Digital Dividend, the re-planning of the 2.5GHz band for mobile use and the re-issuing of existing 15year spectrum licences are behind schedule. “Clearly the Government has made a series of major telecommunication policy announcements in recent months and the mobile sector is hopeful that the spectrum policy is the next cab on the rank.” said AMTA CEO Chris Althaus.

“We are increasingly conscious that policy decisions on spectrum availability that involve change require a long lead time to allow all the necessary processes and procedures to be worked though. We need to keep up with the rest of the world and keep a close eye on demand growth in our own market,” Althaus added.

AMTA recently reported that market demand, particularly for mobile data services such as mobile broadband, is continuing to grow strongly with over 100% increase in mobile broadband subscriptions in 12 months (2008/09). There are global forecasts that suggest mobile broadband growth will top 1000% between 2008 and 2014 increasing from 180 million subscription to 2 billion in this period.

AMTA and its members look forward to the Government announcing its spectrum policy direction as soon as possible.

View The Age article here