Jonathan Adelstein, who took over this week as president of...

to solving the expected spectrum crisis. “People are running around talking about the spectrum crunch, that there’s a need for spectrum,” he said. “I'd like to define it more broadly as a data crunch. The ultimate goal for consumers and the economy is to accommodate the need for more wireless data. More spectrum is sort of the effective means for getting there.” Just making spectrum available for broadband isn’t enough, Adelstein said. “As more spectrum comes online it will ultimately require new infrastructure to accomplish the ultimate goal of meeting the data crunch,” he said. “Infrastructure deployment addresses the data crunch with or without new spectrum, but new spectrum can’t help without new infrastructure.” Policymakers do recognize the importance of infrastructure, he said, with Congress approving a collocation by right provision as part of the February spectrum law, the FCC imposing a shot clock for wireless zoning decisions and the White House issuing an executive order on deployment of facilities on public lands. “I really think you are seeing policymakers get it that infrastructure is an essential element of a solution,” Adelstein said. Still, he said that “demand for wireless data is exploding and you can’t build infrastructure fast enough to keep pace with it.” Adelstein said local and state officials are important and one of his top focuses will be on “really energizing our state operations.” Companies that build out telecom infrastructure are getting lots of bipartisan support nationally and in the states, he said. “This industry is creating jobs,” he said. “You have people who want to hire people to build today, right now.” Adelstein, a Democrat, is a former FCC commissioner, who left his job as administrator of the Rural Utilities Service to take the top job at PCIA Monday.