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European lawmakers agreed today to allocate more radio spectrum to the mobile Internet to provide faster service and boost the roll out of wireless broadband.

Viviane Reding

"The GSM standard has been a success story for Europe, where it was born. By updating the GSM Directive, the EU has paved the way for a new generation of services and technologies where Europe can be a world leader," said EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding. "I would like to thank the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers for making this possible by swiftly agreeing to the reform of this very important piece of telecoms legislation."

"This reform will remove constraints on operators so that they can deploy new technologies in the GSM bands to develop high-speed mobile broadband services. This should give a welcome boost to Europe's wireless economy and help trigger the take-off of a Digital Europe."

The new rules make it easier to adapt spectrum allocation in the 900 MHz frequency to allow next generation high-speed technologies to be deployed.

Consumers' existing mobile devices will continue to work with out problems, but they can also use new technologies to access high-speed broadband services.

The European Commission says the move will have a positive economic effect while reducing network costs resulting from the use of lower frequency bands. The Commission says the new plan will save mobile operators $2.2 billion.