Julius Genachowski, chairman of US regulator the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), yesterday said the commission’s national broadband plan – due to be delivered to Congress March 17 – will call for freeing up 500MHz of spectrum over the next decade for mobile broadband use. In a speech at a New America Foundation event, Genachowski said the US is “lagging behind when it comes to broadband. Multiple studies have the US ranked outside the top 10 when it comes to broadband penetration and speed.” To that end, the chairman claimed that expanding mobile Internet access will be key to making the country more technologically competitive. “Our plan is ambitious but straightforward:  Accelerate the broad deployment of mobile broadband by moving to recover and reallocate spectrum; update our 20th century spectrum policies to reflect 21st century technologies and opportunities; remove barriers to broadband buildout, lower the cost of deployment, and promote competition.”

“No area of the broadband ecosystem holds more promise for transformational innovation than mobile,” Genachowski noted, highlighting the benefits mobile brings to economic growth. “The National Broadband Plan will set a goal of freeing up 500 Megahertz of spectrum over the next decade. We will work closely with NTIA to do so.” The FCC chairman added that the plan will propose a ‘Mobile Future Auction’, permitting existing spectrum licensees, such as television broadcasters in spectrum-starved markets, to voluntarily relinquish spectrum in exchange for a share of auction proceeds, and allow spectrum sharing and other spectrum efficiency measures. Read the full speech, with Genachowski’s other plans to boost mobile use in the US, here.