Mobile Communication Development

There will soon be more mobile phones in the world than people. Yet opportunities for further growth remain great, since “m-applications” are at an early stage of development and the “digital divide” is still far from closure. The phenomenal growth of mobile has been shaped by the convergence of rapidly evolving technologies in the telecommunication and computer industries, unpredicted and unprecedented demand for mobile services, and by spectrum policy and management. Building on the backs of the inventions of Morse, Bell, and Marconi, electronic communication has been extended to incorporate mobility as an essential component of almost all electronic services in the evolution toward information societies. With smartphones and media tablets, the computer industry has seized leadership from the telecommunication industry in directing further technological development. The dominant factor influencing future development, however, will be the extent to which spectrum policy and management can increase spectrum efficiency by an order of magnitude and provide the essential radio spectrum frequency capacity. This entry explains why this is the limiting factor for fifth- generation (5G) mobile communication development and its applications in future information societies. Keywords: electronic services; mobile networks; mobile technologies; radio frequencies; smartphones; spectrum management