The U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced today that it will seek official public comment on possible changes to rules about wireless phone applications using the available public airwaves.

Experts say that the FCC is moving toward a large-scale reallocation of the available radio frequencies, with the demand for wireless broadband service growing weekly. However, radio broadcasters strongly denounce any possible change, saying that they need the public airwaves to ensure that their content is distributed as widely as possible.

A move to grant the telecoms broader control over the public airwaves is thought to be part of the Obama administration’s plan to bring broadband access to many Americans currently without it, according to the Washington Post. The Post writes that the FCC has received a Congressional request to identify a plan for universal adoption by February of 2010.

This summer’s switch to all-digital broadcasts has freed up some spectrum that the telecom companies say is desperately needed to cope with wireless data demand, but demand could grow still farther with the increasing adoption of smartphones.

This entry was posted by Mobility Management News Desk on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 11:06 pm and is filed under Mobile Strategy and Policy News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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