Meredith Attwell Baker, president of CTIA: The Wireless Association, assured broadcasters Wednesday (Oct. 22) that wireless companies would be showing up for the broadcast incentive auction.
She pointed out they had spent some $40 billion in the AWS-3 spectrum auction earlier this year, then added. "To my broadcast friends, rest assured we have billions more for the next auction."
There has been some concern after Sprint decided to sit out the broadcast incentive auction, saying it had enough spectrum for the short and long-term.
But in an acceptance speech for the Media Institute's Horizon Award at a banquet in Washington, Baker said that wireless companies definitely needed hundreds of MHz more spectrum to meet the growing needs of mobile video consumers--video accounts for 60% of mobile traffic on its way to 75% by the end of the decade, she said.
Baker said mobile was the next generation's platform not only for video, but for expression and entrepreneurship. But what was less clear is how "traditional media standards adapt to a 'tweet first' environment.
