[Satellite TODAY 01-19-12] Upgrading from 3G to 4G wireless network technologies could create more than 231,000 new U.S. jobs within a year, according to an NDN economic study published Jan. 18.

   The study, “The Employment Effects of Advances in Internet and Wireless Infrastructure: Evaluating the Transitions from 2G to 3G and from 3G to 4G,” was co-authored by NDN Globalization Initiative Chairman Robert Shapiro and former U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs Kevin Hassett.

   “The technical advances from 2G to 3G wireless broadband and the spread of these more advanced technologies led directly to the creation of more than 1.5 million new jobs over four years, during a period when overall private-sector employment declined by 5.3 million jobs,” Shapiro said in the study. “The private investments that spurred the build-out of 3G broadband networks, with all of their innovations, happened in a highly-competitive wireless market in the United States. The same competitive forces are now driving the additional investments and innovations in the current transition from 3G to 4G wireless networks.”