STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN JULIUS GENACHOWSKI Re: Amendment of Part 27 of the Commission’s Rules to Govern the Operation of Wireless Communications Services in the 2.3 GHz Band; Establishment of Rules and Policies for the Digital Audio Radio Satellite Service in the 2310-2360 MHz Frequency Band, Order on Reconsideration, WT Docket No. 07-293 and IB Docket No. 95-91 Over the past four years, the U.S. has regained global leadership in mobile innovation – setting the pace in key areas like the apps economy, mobile operating systems, and the rollout of 4G LTE networks at scale. The U.S. has become the world’s test bed for 4G LTE services and applications, which is vital for U.S. innovation leadership and for sustainable job creation. To maintain our leadership and spur future innovation, we need to ensure the U.S. has a strategic bandwidth advantage – fast, high-capacity, and ubiquitous broadband. That requires maximizing the value of the airwaves, and ensuring that the spectrum crunch doesn’t slow growth in the mobile economy. With this order, we are freeing up 30 megahertz of WCS spectrum for broadband, which will help maintain our global leadership in 4G LTE and fuel U.S. competitiveness in the global bandwidth race. Three important points about today’s Order: First, making this particular spectrum available for broadband will help sustain U.S. mobile leadership in part because the U.S. is leading the way in developing LTE standards for the WCS band. This is the spectrum at 2.3 Ghz. Second, today’s order frees up spectrum by removing regulatory barriers to flexible use of spectrum for broadband, an approach that can be as valuable as clearing and reallocating new bands of spectrum. Removing regulatory barriers is just one of the approaches we are using as part of our comprehensive strategy to free up spectrum and increase the efficiency of spectrum use. The Commission is also reallocating underutilized spectrum, as with the historic incentive auction; moving forward with traditional auctions; working with our partner agencies to clear and reallocate government spectrum; enabling dynamic spectrum sharing; and facilitating secondary market transactions. This comprehensive strategy is delivering on the National Broadband Plan’s goal of freeing up 300 megahertz of spectrum for broadband by 2015 and 500 megahertz by 2020. Thanks in part to today’s order, we are on track to exceed that goal. Third, this order is a great example of Commission staff working with stakeholders to maximize the value of spectrum, by facilitating pragmatic solutions to spectrum challenges. The WCS band is a long-troubled band that has evaded easy answers for 15 years. I am pleased that we are now solving it. At the beginning of the year, we decided enough is enough. Commission staff engaged stakeholders and helped drive a resolution to thorny and long-standing interference issues, facilitating coexistence between their services and the availability of this spectrum for mobile broadband. Thank you to the Commissioners for working together to free up spectrum, and to the Office of Engineering and Technology, the Wireless Bureau, and the International Bureau for your work on this item.