Licensed Spectrum Enables the App Economy and Create Jobs

On January 25, 2016, the Progressive Policy Institute published a report entitled “App Economy in Europe (Part 1).” Michael Mandel writes that the app economy in Europe comprises 1.64 million jobs with the United Kingdom (321,200 jobs) and Germany (267,900 jobs) leading the way. The report also states that the app economy in the Unites States comprises 1.66 million jobs and that the U.S. has a higher “app intensity” (app economy jobs as percentage of all jobs) than Europe with 1.2 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

Today, January 26, 2016, CTIA – The Wireless Association and Recon Analytics released a new report entitled “The Impact of 10 MHz of Licensed Spectrum,” which finds that the average impact of an allocation of 10 MHz of licensed spectrum from 2011-2014 was the creation of an additional 1.6 million jobs and $24.3 billion in economic activity. The report also finds that in 2014 the U.S. wireless industry contained 7.03 million jobs and created $194.8 billion in annual economic activity.

With the app economy included, the use of licensed spectrum has (directly or indirectly) created over 8.6 million jobs in the U.S. economy. As I wrote in a November 2015 blog, it is important that Congress remove regulatory barriers that stifle the growth of mobile broadband and reallocate licensed spectrum. This would benefit consumers – by incentivizing more investment in mobile services – and benefit workers – by creating more jobs in the mobile services sector and app economy.