Mobile phone carriers lobby for more balkanization by asking for more "spectrum"

This is misinformation, fearmongering and industry lobbying at its worst.

The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) is alleging that carriers need more radio waves, because consumers are using more bandwidth and have more connected devices than ever before.

For a North America, this may not be noticed, since it has been the modus operandi for telecoms and governments alike. Over the last few years, governments in both Canada and the USA have auctioned off new spectrum allocations, to the likes of Google, Cricket Mobile, WINDMobile, and Mobilicity. An example, is the Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum.

Let us be clear: there is no shortage of spectrum! What we have here is balkanization of the wireless spectrum. Instead of having handsets from all networks operate on the same frequencies, we have each carrier having their own spectrum, so handsets are not interchangeable! This means more lock-in for the consumer. Look at the UMTS frequencies and you will see that USA and Canada are always different from the the rest of the world.

Remember that Europe and Asia, which are more densely populated than Canada, are not suffering from the so called "spectrum issues"? Handsets there are portable across carriers. You don't even buy the handset from the carrier, but you buy it from a shop, and handsets work on all carriers.

When can we join the rest of the civilized (mobile) world?