FCC eyes government airwaves as answer to US spectrum crunch

The U.S. may re-license government-held spectrum for commercial use, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday. This could be a solution to the problem with the country's shortage of airwaves for mobile telecommunications.

"We have to do things like look harder and more carefully at government spectrum," and look for "innovative ways" to share airwaves between the private and public sector, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said at a cable industry conference in Boston.

According to Genachowski, the spectrum crunch was the positive result of an entrepreneurial economy that resulted in the popularity of bandwidth-intensive applications available to consumers. Mobile congestion is "in the category of problems you want to have," he said, adding that foreign regulators are increasingly "envious of what they see in the U.S. in terms of broadband innovation."

The FCC chairman also approved the efforts of cable operators to introduce usage-based pricing as a "completely appropriate" step to meet consumers' needs.

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