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Jonathan Spalter
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Jonathan Spalter is the Chairman of Mobile Future, a broad-based coalition of businesses, non-profit organizations and individuals interested in and dedicated to advocating for an environment in which innovations in wireless technology and services are enabled and encouraged.

Prior to joining Mobile Future, Spalter founded the independent investment research company, Public Insight, and was CEO of Snocap, the digital music licensing and company founded by the creators of Napster.

Spalter has also held senior management roles at the Paris headquarters of Vivendi Universal, the global media, telecommunications, and entertainment group. During the Clinton/Gore Administration, Spalter was associate director of the US Information Agency, where he also was appointed chief information officer. He also served in the White House as the director of public affairs for the National Security Council staff, and chief international affairs spokesman and speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore.

Blog Entries by Jonathan Spalter

2011: The United States of Mobile

1 Comments | Posted December 16, 2011 | 12/16/11

2011 was a banner year for mobile and wireless consumers. Among other things, this was the year when the number of mobile subscriptions surpassed the number of people. This is just one of the amazing developments highlighted in Mobile Future's annual video recap, The Mobile Year in Review 2011, that...

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Connecting America's Jobs Plan to the Mobile Future

Posted September 22, 2011 | 9/22/11

In the upcoming election year, virtually every American will be a 'single-issue voter,' going to the ballot box with the nation's economy and their own job prospects top of mind. It's critical that leaders on both sides of the partisan divide recognize that U.S. mobile policy is a poster-child for...

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Broadband Can Power Clean Energy Future

Posted September 19, 2011 | 9/19/11

There's long been talk -- and a shared social commitment -- to 'going green' and reducing our carbon footprint. But as U.S. leaders talk about the clean energy future, there's also rising angst around how much progress we can make in today's economic climate. Against a backdrop of bad news,...

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Mobile Recovery?

Posted August 2, 2011 | 8/2/11

As the dust settles around the debt ceiling debate, there is broad hope that our nation's leaders continue to focus in a constructive way on getting our fiscal house in order. While recent debate centered around whether we raise taxes or cut government programs, too little discussion has focused on...

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When American Consumers Decide, Mobile Internet Wins

Posted July 14, 2011 | 7/14/11

Official Washington already is slugging-it out in the inside-baseball of the next presidential election. But tech policy circles are pouring over the details of another closely watched horserace--the Federal Communications Commission's annual analysis of the competitive nature of the U.S. wireless market. With every manner of mobile device now bursting...

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Answering the Call for Spectrum Now

Posted June 20, 2011 | 6/20/11

In the nation's capital we are beginning to see movement on a critical issue for U.S. wireless consumers with a voracious appetite for innovative mobile services, products and devices -- initial steps to address the coming mobile capacity crunch.

As the mercury rises in the nation's capital, it's not...

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Mobile America: The Most Competitive Wireless Marketplace in the World

1 Comments | Posted May 27, 2011 | 5/27/11

Part of what makes America a global leader--from innovation, to our economy to our democracy--is the notion that we can always do better. It's an important principle that keeps us on our toes and pushing the boundaries of progress. Currently in the world of mobile innovation, much attention is rightly...

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Spectrum: Fueling the Mobile Future

Posted May 18, 2011 | 5/18/11

Smartphones, tablets and an ever-expanding array of mobile gadgetry have become ubiquitous in society. In ways large and small, we all bear witness every day to the fact that modern life is being transformed by the power of the Internet in the palms of our hands.

...

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Don't Deny the Mobile Capacity Crunch

Posted May 5, 2011 | 5/5/11

Washington has been predictably (and rightly) consumed by increasingly urgent warnings of an imminent mobile capacity crunch. The calls for timely action come from the highest levels of both technology and policy circles, and they have set off a classically byzantine inside-Washington debate over allocation of spectrum -- the invisible...

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The Spectrum Shot Clock

Posted April 4, 2011 | 4/4/11

As Americans across the country turn to their mobile devices to track the final brackets of the NCAA college basketball tournament, technology policy circles are turning to a high-stakes game of their own: The need to move quickly and decisively to unlock additional spectrum to meet the fast-growing demands of...

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Wireless Wonderland

Posted March 24, 2011 | 3/24/11

I am truly amazed by the mobile technology that has been unveiled at this year's CTIA Wireless show in Orlando, Florida. It seems only fitting that in such close proximity to the Magic Kingdom, the innovation on display in the convention center has made a trip around the exhibit floor...

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Mobile Week in Review: Top 10 Wireless Stories 2/20-2/25

Posted February 25, 2011 | 2/25/11

To help you keep track of all that's changing in the wireless space, Mobile Future highlights for you our top 10 must-read articles about mobile from the past week.

Smartphones, tablets and operating systems: see what was hot this year at the Mobile World Congress...

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Mobile Week in Review: Top 10 Articles in Mobile 2/14-2/18

Posted February 18, 2011 | 2/18/11

The mobile sector is constantly changing and it's hard to keep track of all of the new developments. To help you stay on top of the wireless evolution, Mobile Future highlights for you our top 10 must-read articles from this past week.

Data Seen Overwhelming Cell...

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Seizing the Mobile Moment

Posted February 11, 2011 | 2/11/11

President Obama made a powerful, affirming speech to the innovation community at Northern Michigan University, laying out a bold roadmap for how he plans to achieve his goal to connect virtually all Americans to the wireless Internet in the next five years.

President...

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State of Our (Mobile) Union

Posted January 27, 2011 | 1/27/11

Winning the future, the theme of the State of the Union address, called for "out-innovating, out-educating, and out-building the rest of the world." President Obama rightly emphasized wireless broadband as a crucial building block for a winning economy.

After declaring this our country's "Sputnik moment," the president went on...

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An Open Internet Pre-Holiday Reading List

Posted December 20, 2010 | 12/20/10

As the clock continues to tick towards tomorrow's all-hands meeting of the Federal Communications Commission, at which a common-sense solution to preserve the open Internet may finally be agreed upon, some very thoughtful and unexpected voices are weighing in to the debate, urging that we "be done, and move forward."

...
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2010: The Year of Mobile

Posted December 15, 2010 | 12/15/10

How is it that time of year again? With the holidays upon us, the common theme to many of my conversations is the frenetic pace of 2010. Looking back on an eventful year, embedded in many of the major stories is a massive surge in mobile connectivity in our daily...

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An Unlikely Model for Turning Swords Into Plowshares

Posted December 2, 2010 | 12/2/10

As many Americans look to policymakers to avoid gridlock in the coming months, a potential model for meaningful progress is emerging in an unlikely place. After years of confrontation and high bombast, the technology community, consumer groups and key policymakers appear to be coalescing around a reasonable resolution to the...

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Wireless Policy in a Bipartisan World

Posted November 4, 2010 | 11/4/10

With the pundits dissecting the meaning of the mid-term elections and the implications of the D.C. power shift, the conventional wisdom appears to be that little can or will get done in Washington. As the argument goes, Republicans now control the House of Representatives, so it is largely unthinkable that...

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Twenty Years Later: Mobile Ability for Americans with Disabilities

Posted July 26, 2010 | 7/26/10

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 — landmark legislation that ensures equal opportunity and accessibility for the 54 million, or one out of five, Americans living with some form of a disability. We have seen terrific progress over the past...

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