Fixed Mobile Convergence

There are some analysts who have predicted there will be two billion networked mobile devices activated in the U.S. by 2015.That translates to six devices per man, woman and child. Sound fantastic? Impossible?

Don't bet on it. We're already a mobile-mad nation – there are already more activated mobile devices in the U.S. than there are people – and our obsession keeps growing. Mobile Future (News - Alert) yesterday released its “2011 Mobile Year in Review” report that offers a series of rather fascinating consumer and technology mobile trends from this past year. The report outlines the mind-boggling growth that has taken place in just one year in consumer mobile usage across a dizzying array of applications and social media platforms.

But at the base of the expansion and growth is, of course, the growth of the mobile Internet. But it won't be all easy sailing: the nation needs to ensure that the mobile Internet can continue to expand, says Mobile Future, so it can revolutionize our lives, and help the economy. The wireless sector supports 2.4 million American jobs. If we are able to build out 500 MHz of additional spectrum for mobile, we can create 500,000 more U.S. jobs and add $400 billion to the nation’s GDP. By the year 2020, an estimated $1.2 trillion of economic activity will be added to the nation’s economy annually, seven times the estimate for this year.

Ignorant, short-sighted Congressional legislation like the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA), which may eviscerate the U.S. Web services sector to create a place of privilege for a narrow section of U.S. business interests with high-cost lobbyists, would be disastrous to the U.S. if something similar is applied to the mobile Internet (indeed, it seems probably already that SOPA will have a stifling effect on the growth of the mobile Internet). The U.S. is also in dire need of more wireless spectrum.

Here are some fascinating facts highlighted by the Mobile Future report:

• The build out of an additional 500 MHz of spectrum available to expand the mobile Internet will create 500,000 U.S. jobs and add $400 billion to U.S. GDP.
• U.S. mobile networks now run at 80 percent of capacity, compared to the world average of 65 percent. Without more spectrum, mobile Internet demand may overwhelm capacity within two years, causing a deficit in three years.
• Consumer enthusiasm for bandwidth-hungry tablets and smart phones drive forecasts that wireless data traffic will grow 21-fold from 2010 to 2015, with U.S. wireless networks in four years moving data at twice the volume of the entire global Internet in 2005.
• African-Americans and Latinos are more likely to own smartphones and are twice as likely to use the mobile Internet as their primary means of going online.
• While we may complain about our bills, U.S. consumers get more “bang for the buck” with their wireless plans, with one minute of average work earnings buying 19 minutes of talk time. In Finland, second on the list, one minute of work buys just five minutes of talk.
• We're on our way to 4G. This year, AT&T and Sprint joined MetroPCS, Clearwire, Verizon (News - Alert) and T-Mobile in offering 4G service in some areas. Leap Wireless and US Cellular will shortly be on board with 4G.
• Despite the challenging economy, wireless carriers delivered approximately $27.5 billion in investment in U.S. mobile networks last year.

With the mobile Internet representing such growth opportunities for the U.S. in the years to come, look for Congress to attempt to derail it in the name of national security; an angry, wealthy competitors' whim; or sheer, inept bureaucracy.