New Report: Mobile Gaining Momentum

-- Bipartisan Policies Fuel Consumer-Driven Competition, Choice --

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, Mobile Future, a non-profit and non-partisan wireless coalition, released a paper offering an overview of 10 key ways competition and choice are driving mobile innovation and making the case for the bipartisan policy framework that has long defined U.S. wireless policy.

Entitled "Mobile Momentum: How Consumer-Driven Competition Shapes & Defines the Modern U.S. Wireless Landscape," the paper examines how the U.S. mobile marketplace has been carefully nurtured through periods of Republican and Democratic leadership via policies that allow consumer choice and market competition to shape and direct wireless innovation. The paper points specifically to the 1993 bi-partisan, pro-innovation Congressional decision that embraced consumer choice over heavy regulation and triggered 10 seminal benchmarks that advance the U.S. mobile ecosystem to this day:

• Most Diverse Carrier Choices
• Lowest Mobile Voice Prices
• Nearly 100% Adoption
• Most Robust Network Investment
• Rapidly Rising Mobile Connectivity
• Accelerating Mobile Innovation
• Most Competitive Device Market
• Largest Apps Market
• Customer-responsive Marketplace
• Powerful Engine of Job Creation

"While elections are inevitably partisan, sound policy that stands the test of time often is not," said Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter.  "As policymakers seek ways to encourage the next wave of mobile innovation for our society and our economy, we need to acknowledge the bipartisan path that got us this far.  The rapid, awe-inspiring innovation and profound private-sector capital investment of the past two decades has been fueled by a centrist policy framework that showed rare restraint and clear deference to consumer choices in a competitive marketplace.  That's a foundation to build on in the time ahead."

The report points to several key areas where policymakers can make a difference. The most pressing need is to free up more spectrum to accommodate growing demand. Other recommendations include carefully examining the diverse ways in which consumers embrace mobile connectivity to avoid imposing regulations that would stifle innovation and limit competition;  considering policies that send clear pro- capital investment messages; and acknowledging the competitive nature of the U.S. mobile marketplace.

"This success didn't happen by accident," Spalter added. "Forward-looking policies led to an explosion in wireless growth, job creation, investment and innovation and policymakers today must be vigilant to ensure that policies going forward maintain a climate in which mobile technologies continue to evolve and deliver new services, products and opportunities to consumers."

To read the full report visit http://www.mobilefuture.org/content/pages/mobile_momentum

Additional information about Mobile Future can be found at www.mobilefuture.org

Mobile Future is a broad-based coalition of businesses, non-profit organizations and individuals interested in, and dedicated to, advocating for an environment in which innovations in wireless technology and services are enabled and encouraged.  Its mission is to educate the public and key decision makers on innovations in the wireless industry that have transformed the way Americans work and play, and to advocate continued investment in wireless technologies.

SOURCE Mobile Future