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Feb. 4, 2008

According to Grant Seiffert, president of The Telecommunications Industry (TIA), last year, Americans spent over $208 billion on wireless communications technology.

On Feb. 11, TIA will share the details of its annual Telecommunications Market Review & Forecast, officials of the non-profit group said.

These numbers are about 10 percent higher than in the previous year, which is consistent growth compared to the recent past.

Seiffert said "overall, wireless is the fastest growth area for our membership."

Wireless is also a big contributor to the national growth of broadband access in general.

In its own report released last week, Networked Nation: Broadband in America 2007, the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration said there were 82.5 million broadband Internet connections in the U.S. in Dec. 2006, compared to 6.8 million lines in Dec. 2000.

But Seiffert did moderate his enthusiasm somewhat. He said "I don't dispute at all the growth in numbers. I still think that we're going in the right direction. The FCC deserves much of the credit for changing its rules."

He added "also, we believe there's still a lot of work to do. Rural America still isn't connected like we'd like to see. I think that's why this debate is important to have."

Officials of the TIA, NTIA and Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA), all said the growth is largely due to efforts by the Bush administration earlier in this decade to encourage network investments.

Observers say it is fairly rare that the TIA, NTIA and Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association all agree on the same topic and at the same time.

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Source: The Telecommunications Industry (TIA)

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