Costly spectrum raises debate in Barcelona

left, A hostess draws on the Samsung Galaxi Note 10.1 Tablet during a presentation in Barcelona yesterday on the opening day of the Mobile World Congress, the world's biggest mobile fair. middle, Sony's next CEO Kaz Hirai (L) and Sony Ericsson's President and CEO (mobile communications) Bert Nordberg pose with mobile phones. right, HTC's President and CEO Peter Chou poses with the new HTC One during a news conference. The GSMA Mobile World Congress that represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry ends on March 1. Photo: Afp/Reuters

Global telecom experts have urged regulators to award spectrum for free to generate value for the future economy.
They said spectrum at no cost does not mean that operators will make huge profits; it means creating value for the generations to come.
Generating revenue by imposing high spectrum fees is not good regulation anymore, they added. Such imposition must have a business case, which can only ensure more investment in mobile sector development.
The experts where speaking at the opening conference styled “Mobile Operator Strategies” at the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2012 that kicked off yesterday in Barcelona, Spain.
Speaking at the session, Vittorio Colao, chief executive officer of Vodafone, said when spectrum will be free, thousands of IT geniuses will automatically flourish by creating innovative services, which means free spectrum equals huge amounts of revenue generation. “This is needed now to protect the world economy from further recession.”
The speaker said two years back, people were not happy with too many uses of the mobile phone. But time has changed and customers now want everything in a single mobile phone -- from the ability to talk to people to switching off a car engine.
Referring to a study, Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO mobility of AT&T, said mobile services for agriculture have been taken to a level that can tell how much irrigation is required through utilising spectrum.
Through advanced mobile based applications, farmers can now quantify the irrigation requirement for crop cultivation, he said.
Speakers said the radical transition from a not so happy situation to satisfaction happened because of the development of the smart phone. Though smartphones' share of global data traffic utilisation is only 12 percent, customers are becoming more comfortable using it to discharge their day-to-day work.
People related to the mobile industry from all over the world are participating in the four-day Mobile Congress, including operators from Bangladesh along with representatives from the ministry and regulatory bodies.
Representing the interest of mobile operators spanning more than 220 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world's mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations, according to a GSMA statement.
The theme of this year's mobile congress is 'Redefining Mobile', emphasising new applications. The GSMA yesterday announced the first in a series of activities designed to help users and operators manage the growing traffic and signalling demand generated by smartphones and mobile applications.
The GSMA has created a developer's guide, which will help application developers ensure that their applications are more user and network friendly. Along with this guide, the GSMA is launching the "Smarter Apps Challenge" competition to drive the development of efficient mobile applications, according to a GSMA statement.