FT.com / Comment & analysis / Letters - Digital dividend is in danger of not happening

The US plans to auction some of this spectrum for mobile broadband services later this year. In contrast, many European countries have yet to decide whether there will be a "digital dividend" at all, and Europe as a whole intends to defer any decision about whether the spectrum should be usable for anything other than broadcasting until the next World Radio Conference in 2011.

Europe can lead the world again in the next generation of mobile communications. But it will not do so if it defers decisions until the next decade and thereby denies Europe's consumers and businesses the benefits of innovation that their American and Asian counterparts are already well placed to enjoy. European governments should instead grasp the opportunity of mobile and support a co-primary allocation for mobile services in this spectrum at the World Radio Conference in October this year.