The outgoing (and next) Congress and administration should be worried about losing the third-generation mobile phone market to Europe and Asia. Why? Because, in a very real sense, losing 3G is tantamount to losing U.S. high-tech leadership.
American high-tech superiority in today’s Internet economy is based on a personal computer-centric model. But the world is changing. It’s more mobile than ever before, with each new generation more technology savvy than the one before it and more prone to incorporate technology into their daily lives.
Communications once restricted to telephone lines are now free to travel through the ether to mobile phones, laptop computers, personal digital assistants and other wireless devices. Anywhere, anytime, anyplace.
All this is to say that 3G is about more than the future of the mobile telephone. It’s about the future of the Internet. And the future of the Internet is about who will command global high-tech leadership in the new century.
At present, the United States is losing ground to Europe and Asia in 3G development. This is not some fiction concocted by journalists around the world, contrary to self-deluded U.S. trade officials.
U.S. mobile phone firms, besides operating systems based on incompatible digital standards in a patchwork of licensing areas, have less spectrum for 3G than their overseas counterparts. New spectrum that is earmarked for 3G is occupied by broadcasters, the military, fixed wireless licensees and others.
None is planning to go anywhere soon, even if the government wishes it so. Then there’s the spectrum cap and other restrictions.
For U.S. wireless carriers and manufacturers, it’s like going up to the plate against Randy Johnson with two strikes on you.
In years past, the political will to shake excess spectrum loose from TV broadcasters has been lacking, if existent at all. But now, with high-tech driving the biggest economic expansion in U.S. history, the calculus has changed. Fear of an economic downturn-the kind of thing that can drive even the strongest incumbent from office-could give politicians newfound courage to face the mighty broadcast lobby.
But U.S. high-tech leadership is about more than 3G spectrum. It’s also about education, or lack thereof. In fact, writes Washington Post columnist E.J. Donne Jr., education is the unifying issue for GOP and Democratic industry types in Silicon Valley. Cisco CEO John Chambers and venture capitalist John Doerr are working with California Gov. Gray Davis (D) to make it easier to pass bonds to refurbish the state’s over-stressed public school system.
Last week, John Glenn, former astronaut and U.S. senator, called for $5 billion in federal funding to improve teacher training. U.S. high-tech competitiveness is being challenged. How will U.S. leaders respond? This is not rocket science.
