The agency is on track to make 300MHz of new spectrum available for commercial mobile networks by 2015, fulfilling part of the 2010 National Broadband Plan, Genachowski said Thursday at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. The FCC distributed the text of his speech.

Mobile operators have been clamoring for at least that much spectrum to fulfill what they say will be rapidly growing mobile data use by consumers over the next several years. CTIA, the main trade group for U.S. cellular carriers, has called for 800MHz of additional spectrum by 2015.

Genachowski's forecast included good news for most of the major U.S. operators, though it wasn't as clear for Dish Network, which is hoping to build a completely new network using fast LTE Advanced technology. He named several changes that the cellular companies have sought and said the FCC is on the way to making them happen.

The agency is on track to auction several blocks by 2015 in the AWS (Advanced Wireless Services) band, a key piece of spectrum for LTE networks. Among them is a band between 1755MHz and 1780MHz, where a commercial user would share the spectrum with current government users. T-Mobile USA has been advocating that spectrum-sharing plan and hopes to use the band in its LTE service, set to launch next year.

But first, the agency expects to sell licenses for a band that Sprint Nextel has been seeking to bolster its LTE service. The proceeds from the so-called AWS-2 H-Block auction would fund a nationwide public safety network and help to pay down the federal deficit.