STATEMENT OF
CHAIRMAN JULIUS GENACHOWSKI
Re:  Fixed and Mobile Services in the Mobile Satellite Service Bands at 1525-1559 MHz and 1626.5-
1660.5 MHz, 1610-1626.5 MHz and 2483.5-2500 MHz, and 2000-2020 MHz and 2180-2200 
MHz, ET Docket No. 10-142.
Today we launch a new spectrum flexibility initiative as part of our major effort to promote world-
leading broadband infrastructure here in the United States, and to unleash the opportunities of wireless 
broadband.  
Having world-leading wireless networks in the 21st Century will be essential to our global 
competitiveness.  Achieving this goal of world leadership won’t happen without action.  In today’s global 
economy, with the focus other countries are giving to the opportunities of broadband, to stand still is to fall 
behind.  To achieve our goals, we must increase spectrum for wireless broadband and reduce needless 
regulatory obstacles to broadband deployment.  
The item we vote on today is designed to accomplish both.  Moving forward on a key initiative of 
the National Broadband Plan, today we begin the process of removing regulatory barriers to use of 
spectrum for terrestrial mobile wireless service in the mobile satellite service (MSS) bands.   We need both 
ground-based and satellite-based mobile broadband.  And we intend to modify our rules in a way that both 
expands terrestrial mobile broadband and ensures that America has a robust mobile satellite capability for 
rural areas and when disaster strikes. 
Our action today flows from the National Broadband Plan, and is consistent with the recent 
Executive Memorandum, both of which recognize the importance of spectrum for our economy and call for 
an additional 500 MHz of spectrum for broadband.  This proceeding will help make 90 megahertz of prime 
spectrum available for mobile broadband, while promoting efficient use of this spectrum, including 
including the use of secondary market leasing arrangements.  Our action today also builds upon our recent 
approval of the transaction between Harbinger Capital Partners and SkyTerra Communications, which 
facilitated a multi-billion dollar commitment to invest in a new 4G wireless network.  These are examples 
of our focus on FCC actions that will unleash private sector investment and innovation.  This proceeding 
will open the door to exciting new opportunities in mobile—new networks, new devices, new competition 
and new technologies. 
The mobile broadband revolution is upon us, with smartphones, netbooks, and other connected 
devices generating unprecedented capacity demands on our terrestrial wireless networks.  We are seeing an 
exciting innovation-driven reinvention of wireless communications.  This is how we’ve had significant job 
creation in the U.S. in the past – innovation and reinvention of industries, with small companies becoming 
big, and big companies becoming bigger, competing and creating jobs in a rapidly changing landscape.  
Today we take an important action to make our spectrum rules more flexible and increase the amount of 
spectrum available for mobile broadband.  This will catalyze investment and spark innovation, create jobs, 
help increase broadband speeds and capacity, and take an important step to make sure that America has the 
spectrum it needs to lead the world in mobile.