As well as developments about smartphones, mobile devices and apps we like to bring you details of what else is happening in the mobile world. There’s rather ominous news today as it seems that problems could lie ahead for wireless network carriers as airwaves get closer to capacity.

This is something that most of us would normally never give a thought to as we just take it for granted that the services we now receive and expect will always be available. However it seems there is a real threat as the airwaves that data travels on, referred to as spectrum, are almost at capacity. This is leading to more dropped calls, slow streaming and delayed messages than previously, bringing a real dilemma to mobile industries.

An article on Yahoo today informs on the Paragon Report, which supplies stock research on Verizon Communications and Sprint Nextel and also scutinises investment opportunities in the Telecom Services Industry. Apparently Verizon is already noticing spectrum shortages in certain areas, as noted in a regulatory filing. Also, one of the reasons that AT&T was trying to acquire T-Mobile (before the move was blocked by the federal government) was to relieve spectrum shortages.

Market research firm Stratecast’s Nancee Ruzicka, its Denver-based director of strategy, spoke of the spectrum problem saying, “It really is a big deal. No matter what you’re willing to pay or what you’re willing to do, it’s almost going to become that gridlock situation where this is all there is. It’s a physics issue. There’s only so much spectrum.”

No doubt the more this problem develops the more we’ll start to hear of real concerns about airwave capacity and we’ll be interested to hear how wireless network carriers will deal with this issue. What are your thoughts on spectrum shortages as the airwaves fill to capacity?