The fact that broadband capacity and wireless networks in the US considerably lag behind those of many of the other countries has been increasingly accentuated by the frequent complaints about the country’s wireless networks being bogged down by the ever-growing use of smartphones.

The most common complaints that users of smartphones, especially iPhone, have been making in the recent past include - frequent dropped calls; failure to make or receive calls even despite an apparently strong signal; lack of voice mail notifications; and inability to make data connections.

Though AT&T has often been at the receiving end of the brickbats about ‘spotty’ service for the iPhone users, especially those in thickly-populated areas of New York and San Francisco, the carrier has still gone ahead with several initiatives that would add more 3G data devices to its network - including e-book readers, Android smartphones, mobile data modems, and also the new Apple iPad!

As such, with greater demand for mobile broadband apparently on the cards for AT&T and other wireless carriers, Phil Bellaria - FCC director of scenario planning for Omnibus Broadband Initiative – said: “We must ensure that network congestion doesn't choke off a service that consumers clearly find so appealing or frustrate mobile broadband’s ability to keep us competitive in the global broadband economy.”