This morning he announced a new spectrum-sharing program through which the FCC and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the division of the Commerce Department that oversees government spectrum, will begin a review of government-controlled airwaves with an eye toward enabling commercial usage of the 1755 MHz to 1780 MHz LTE band. Paired with a segment in the 2155 MHz to 2180 MHz range, the initiative would aim to bring 50 MHz of paired spectrum to auction within three years, Genachowski says, touting it as an example of the creative proposals that will need to emerge in order to address the supply-demand imbalance that has attended the mobile data crush.

"We know that it's becoming increasingly hard to ... clear blocks of spectrum and reallocate them from government to commercial. Where we can, of course, we must, and we will. But when thinking about government spectrum it would be counterproductive to limit us to just two choices: complete reallocation or nothing," he says.

Genachowski has been an outspoken advocate for policies to advance mobile broadband since taking office in 2009. Early on in his tenure, the agency produced a national broadband plan that set the ambitious goal of moving 300 MHz of spectrum to wireless broadband by 2015, and another 200 MHz by 2020.

"These were intentionally audacious goals," he says.

Advocates of spectrum reform recently won a significant victory with the enactment of legislation authorizing the FCC to conduct so-called incentive auctions, through which television broadcasters would be invited to relinquish their spectrum licenses in exchange for a portion of the revenue generated through their resale to wireless carriers.