Minister for Communications, Broadband and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy called it right in his recent speech to the Radcomms 09 Conference when he said:

“Recognising future trends and spectrum requirements for emerging and existing wireless services is vital.

"It is important that industry have the certainty they need to plan for their future and the development of new services.

"As I said at this same conference last year, Australia's future prosperity will be closely linked to our success in harnessing the potential of spectrum.”

These same challenges are present around the world where strong demand growth for advanced mobile applications including a surge in mobile broadband demand is driving a new and intense focus on radio-frequency spectrum processes. For example, Rethink-wireless has reported on Germany’s plan to auction a massive 340MHz of spectrum for wireless usage across several bands in response to demand and anticipated growth in mobile broadband and 4G technologies.

The growth of mobile broadband subscribers is forecast to grow and extraordinary 1024% between 2008 and 2014 according to Ovum. This would represent subscriber numbers of around 2 billion in 2014 from the 2008 level of just over 180 million. Similarly, Informa Telecoms & Media suggests that global mobile data traffic could grow by 1000% between 2007 and 2012.

Growth forecasts like these underscore the critical nature of decisions facing governments around the world which must ensure the policy balance needed to secure the productivity and connectivity potential of advanced mobile and wireless technologies.

In Australia the Government is working on processes to address the expiration and re-issue of current 15 year spectrum licences, the re-planning of 2.5/2.6GHz for mobile telecommunications and the re-allocation of an optimal balance of spectrum between broadcasting and mobile arising from the Digital Dividend when analogue TV services cease at the end of 2013. All of these decisions will significantly shape the future of mobile telecommunications in Australia and by definition the economic and social contribution of the sector. There is a sense of urgency around all three issues as spectrum policy change and implementation is a lengthy process with direct linkages to industry’s forward operational and investment planning as highlighted by the Minister’s comments.

The industry also noted another important comment by Minister Conroy when he said in reference to the Digital Dividend:

“It is also important to note that the digital dividend is not about revenue to the Budget.

"The true value of the digital dividend lies in the economic and social benefits of the services that it can support.”

The industry agrees with this comment.

The full text of the Minister’s speech is available here.