Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski isn’t buying it.

In a speech at the CTIA trade show in New Orleans on Tuesday, Genachowski said that it shouldn’t lead to higher prices and that, indeed, more competition will ultimately lead to lower prices for consumers.

Signaling that the agency isn’t closed to all deals, Genachowski said that rejecting one over-the-line deal “simply proves that there is a line.”

Genachowski said that, by and large, the U.S. wireless industry is in good shape.

“The kinds of challenges we have in mobile are the kind we want — challenges stemming from mobile demand,” Genachowski said.

The industry is clamoring for more spectrum, an effort that has gained some momentum, but is moving too slowly for many in the industry. And unsurprisingly, AT&T took issue with Genachowski’s take.

“The merger AT&T proposed last year was all about creating more capacity by combining the spectrum holdings and networks of two companies,” responded Jim Cicconi, Senior Executive Vice President, External and Legislative Affairs. “The FCC was within its rights to withhold its approval. But it is incorrect when it denies the impact such decisions have on the price of wireless services. Basic economics, and the law of supply and demand, apply to the wireless industry as to all others. In the case of wireless, without additional capacity, which would have been created by our transaction, prices rise.”

Genachowski also used an appearance at a cellphone trade show to tout a list of recent accomplishments — everything from progress toward incentive auctions to approval of unlicensed “white spaces” spectrum, and an initiative to create a database of stolen phones.

“These successes are worth celebrating,” he said.

Genachowski began with a bit of stand-up, as he noted the long-awaited Senate confirmation Monday of two FCC commissioners.

“I’m not saying their confirmation was overdue, but they were nominated by President Truman,” he said.

Ahead of Genachowski’s speech, CTIA boss Steve Largent issued his familiar call for more spectrum, and incoming CTIA Chairman Patrick Riordan — whose day job is as CEO of Cellcom — showed a video explaining just what his company does. For those who have never heard of Cellcom, it is a rural carrier serving Wisconsin and Michigan.

Riordan is interesting, in that he gives voice to the issues of rural carriers, which often take a back seat to the “big four.”

“The issues of rural and large carriers aren’t always complementary,” Riordan said. “We can’t ignore them, but rather we must face them.”

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Coming on the heels of both January’s Consumer Electronics Show and February’s Mobile World Congress, the CTIA event in March had become something of a rehash of products announced at those earlier events.

In response, the show’s producers have pushed this year’s event back to May, a move aimed at creating some separation from the other conferences.

“We were told by a lot of people ‘I’m out of breath,’” CTIA chief Steve Largent told AllThingsD. “We heard that. We listened.”

This year’s event takes place next week in New Orleans, at the end of that city’s popular jazz festival.

By changing the timing, CTIA is also hoping that some companies may be ready to announce products due to ship by the back-to-school shopping season.

“I would say the verdict is not in yet but all the indications are it is a good move,” Largent said.

It seems some companies aren’t waiting for CTIA to make announcements.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, for example, is announcing news at its own developer conference this week, while Samsung is using a May 3 event in London to announce its next flagship Galaxy device.

Some device makers and carriers have said to expect noteworthy announcements at the show, while others are planning just meetings and social gatherings at the event.

As for formal events, the highlight is likely to be a panel on Tuesday afternoon featuring top executives from the four major U.S. carriers. CNBC’s Jim Cramer is set to moderate that. The conference wraps up on Thursday with a speech from former President Bill Clinton.

Last year’s show, in Orlando, was dominated by the news announced on the eve of the event that AT&T was planning to buy T-Mobile in a blockbuster $39 billion deal.

RELATED POSTS:

• With No Apple or Amazon at CTIA, iPad Rivals Free to Sling Arrows
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• Remember Carrier IQ? Well, It’s Still Around and Kicking.
• Sprint Product Exec: Launching LTE Devices Before Network Just Makes Sense
• FCC Chairman: Rejection of AT&T’s T-Mobile Deal Isn’t Causing Higher Prices
• Boingo Adds VPN and Crowdsource Hotspot Data to Its Wi-Fi Software
• T-Mobile CTO: Network Should be Ready for iPhone Users by Q4
• Interview: AT&T’s Glenn Lurie on Being the New Sheriff in Town
• Another Day, Another PayPal-esque Digital Wallet: Here’s MasterCard’s High-Tech Billfold
• CTIA Gets Down to Business in the Big Easy
• AT&T Aims to Break Into the Home-Security Business
• Interview: CTIA Boss Steve Largent Aims To Keep Conference From Being Lost in the Shuffle

At least that’s the perspective of Steve Largent, the former Seattle Seahawks wide receiver and U.S. congressman who now heads the trade group that puts on the event.

“This is still the No. 1 show for the wireless industry, particualrly the wireless industry in North America,” Largent told Mobilized by phone this week, adding that the show floor will take up 300,000 square feet, the most since he joined the group in 2003.

That said, the organization is shaking things up for 2012, moving its event later in the year–to May–and changing the location to New Orleans. Largent insists it wasn’t a direct impact from CES and Mobile World Congress, but said that exhibitors did want an event that was later in the year.

“They’ve told us they want more opportunity to unveil their back-to-school and year-end products and services and we are going to give them that opportunity in May.”

As for next week’s event in Orlando, one of the highlights is likely to be the opening keynote on Tuesday which features top executives from the top four cellular carriers duking it out on stage in a forum moderated by CNBC’s Jim Cramer.

“I think our CEOs are a little nervious about having Jim Cramer be the emcee,” Largent said, but added the format should give the audience a great time and a good snapshot of where the industry is at.

Mobilized will be at the CTIA event all next week, providing lots of on-the-ground coverage from the event as well as moderating a panel on augmented reality.

Of course, no conversation with Largent would be complete without talking about policy concerns, so we also chatted briefly about taxes and spectrum issues.

Getting more spectrum for his industry continues to be the main issue for the CTIA, Largent said. Things are largely where they stood when Mobilized chatted with Largent back in December, with one slight negative being the stance taken by the National Association of Broadcasters.

“The biggest thing that is new and slightly disturbing has been NAB’s reaction and their growing hostility to having an auction of spectrum they now have and are not using,” Largent said. Still, Largent said he is hopeful some middle ground can be reached enabling more spectrum to be auctioned off sooner.

“I think some accommodation will be made for the broadcasters, but we desperately need that spectrum and need to get it teed up sooner rather than later,” he said.

As for tax issues, Largent said he is pleased that once again the House has taken up a measure that would put a freeze on new wireless taxes for the next five years. Wireless consumers, he said, pay on average 16.3 percent of their monthly bill in various taxes and fees.

“We think that is more than enough,” Largent said.

Today the the CTIA, the wireless industry trade organization, got behind the president’s plan in a big way, and suggested that the proposed spectrum auctions could bring in billions of dollars more than the president said. Using data from 13 prior spectrum auctions as a model, the organization today released the findings of a study conducted in partnership with the Consumer Electronics Association saying that an auction of 120 MHz worth of spectrum could produce revenue in the range of $36 billion to $48 billion.

The study also found that only in the top 30 markets in the continental United States will TV stations actually have to exit certain spectrum ranges to clear up sufficient spectrum for wireless broadband. In most cases, TV broadcasters will probably be satisfied with incentive auctions that give them some portion of the proceeds raised from the auctions. In a few cases it will be trickier, and the study suggests a few options like channel-sharing and repacking. Broadcasters outside the top 30 markets should not have to give up any spectrum, the study says.

The point of the study, CTIA president Steve Largent told me, is to help nudge Congress toward passing a law that will allow the Federal Communications Commission to hold incentive auctions that can help spur TV broadcasters who currently have the licenses for the spectrum. So far, broadcasters have signaled that they’re not yet entirely willing to go along with this plan. “We think this can be relatively painless for the broadcasters, but it’s still going to take a lot of work at Congress and at the FCC to get it done,” Largent said.

That the wireless industry would be getting behind Obama’s plan is no surprise given their exploding spectrum needs for data services, so there is a bit of a grain-of-salt element to the study’s findings. However it’s also a solid signal that the wireless carriers are willing to bring serious cash to bear for spectrum, which is, generally speaking, good news for all concerned.

Broadcasters are understandably taking a cautious line. In a statement issued last week in response to Obama’s speech in Michigan, Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters said, “Let’s not forget that broadcasters returned more than a quarter of TV station spectrum to the government less than two years ago, and that much of that spectrum has not yet been deployed. NAB is not against the President’s plan. We will work to ensure that incentive auctions remain truly voluntary, and that broadcasters who don’t volunteer to return spectrum–and the millions of viewers that we serve–are held harmless.”

Yes, that Steve Largent. For those who have been in a dead zone for the past two decades, the former Seattle Seahawks wide receiver went on to become a congressman and has spent the last seven years heading up the wireless industry’s trade association–a 90-person group with an annual budget of nearly $50 million.

It was a fun talk, though he did deflect some of the more divisive questions, including whether the carriers’ differing definitions of 4G is leading to customer confusion. In general, though, Largent showed the same soft hands he had during all those years on the gridiron.

Largent began by talking about his top priorities (spectrum, spectrum and more spectrum, plus a need for no new wireless taxes) and then I jumped in. Here’s an edited transcript of our talk:

On the need for more spectrum: It really is the lifeblood of the industry. It fuels the virtuous cycle….We’ll work with any interested party to get more spectrum. It really is the most critical element to the service that we provide.

What a lot of people forget about is how long the process takes to get spectrum to the marketplace. The last two spectrum auctions that we had took somewhere between eight and 11 years to come to market. We simply can’t wait that long. The FCC and the president called for 500 MHz in the next 10 years and 300 MHz of that in the next five years. That is a laudible goal. We’re seeing if we can’t even get more spectrum and get it quicker.

That really is priority 1, 2 and 3 for us as a trade association. It has been this year and it will be until we see that spectrum auctioned.

(Largent then went on to talk about the group’s actual No. 2 and No. 3 priorities, which I will summarize. No. 2 is to keep downward pressure on taxes, such as pushing for a five-year ban on new wireless taxes. No. 3 is all the warm-fuzzy stuff like environmental friendliness and those commercials that tell you to hang up and drive.)

Mobilized: Your organization opposes the extension of net neutrality into wireless broadband. Won’t this eventually mean the end of net neutrality as a whole since everything is heading wireless?

Largent: To me, this all goes back to the first point I was making and that’s this spectrum issue. The reason wireless is unique is because of the limited amount of spectrum we have today. To alleviate that, we have to have more spectrum and the more spectrum we have, the more services we have and the necessity of managing our network becomes less severe.

Until we get to that point–and we are not there yet–we have to have the ability to manage our network. If we don’t, you could have 911 calls blocked or people’s calls from their kids in college blocked or emergency alerts blocked and that’s not the system anyone wants to see.

You’ve been at the group since 2003, so you have seen some generation shifts. How would you say the 3G to 4G transition is going, relative to past transitions?

I think it is going very well. I think it is actually going faster. This is a quantum leap, going from 3G to 4G, and it takes an incredible amount of investment. We’ve seen the first of the 4G technologies with Sprint. We see Verizon coming on very quickly this year. AT&T is following closely on their heels. T-Mobile, they have some real spectrum constraints and yet they are coming on very quickly as well.

What do you make of the fact that different companies are using different definitions of 4G. Do you think there is some risk that if your members don’t use that term to mean the same thing that consumers won’t understand the benefits of true 4G?

No. What I would tell you is this is a highly competitive marketplace. What these individual companies do in terms of marketing their plans for 4G and their services and how quickly they are available to customers, that’s a competitive practice and a competitive field. I’m not going to weigh in on that. That’s a place I am not going to go.

Obviously wireless is one of the most competitive areas, with customers looking for new services and devices every couple of years, and a lot of money is spent driving to retain and attract new users. It seems like attacks have gotten sharper in the past few years. Do you think there is more energy going into attacks, or is that just the way the game is played?

There’s a lot of sharp elbows in any competitive industry like ours and that’s not something I am embarrassed about. I’m actually very proud of the fact of how competitive our carriers are with each other. It goes beyond the carriers to handset makers to application providers. There is a lot of competition going on in this space.

The other thing to look at is the amount of money that they are spending to advertise their services. I think three of our four carriers are in the top ten of advertising. It’s very competitive, and those elbows do get sharp.

Since, I’m new to the wireless beat, I asked some of my colleagues to come up with some good, topical questions. Here’s what one came back with: The 1983 playoff win against the Dolphins was one of the most exciting and surprising games ever played. Do you agree?

I can tell you that 1983 was when this trade association came into existence….That game was very exciting–Dan Marino was a rookie that year.

It’s going to be a rough couple of months for the wireless industry.

As expected, the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approved a broad inquiry into the wireless market. In a unanimous vote, the agency’s five commissioners–three Democrats and two Republicans–approved two so-called notices of inquiry, one that will examine competition and innovation and another that will evaluate truth-in-billing practices.

“I can’t think of a more important moment to be considering these issues,” FCC chairman Julius Genachowski told a hearing in Washington. “Many Americans are learning to do more with less. A surprise charge on a monthly bill, or a new service that does not perform as advertised, can be a major budget-buster, especially as household spending on communications grows ever larger. This FCC will have a relentless focus on innovation and investment, on competition and consumers.”

Genachowski added that these inquiries could lay the groundwork for the examination of other industries such as cable and Internet. “I hope the new wireless competition report will help set a standard for fact-based, analytically deep analysis of the mobile industry,” he said. “It is essential that the commission develop policies that encourage a new generation of innovators, working with new tools, on new platforms, and having an extraordinary impact on our economy and society.”

The wireless industry’s trade group, CTIA, welcomed the inquiry through gritted teeth, saying it “appreciates the opportunity to respond” to the FCC’s questions. “The wireless ecosystem–from carriers to handset manufacturers to network providers to operating-system providers to application developers–is evolving before our eyes and this is not the same market that it was even three years ago,” said president and chief executive Steve Largent. “In this industry, innovation is everywhere.”

But BoomTown was not moved in the least by the post that CTIA President and CEO Steve Largent (pictured here) wrote yesterday on the blog for the wireless industry association’s annual meeting, taking place in San Francisco now through tomorrow.

Titled “Largent to Mossberg…Wish You Were Here in San Francisco,” he was apparently trying to smack back at Walt’s “Free My Phone” piece earlier this week, in which Walt blamed the large cellphone carriers for lack of innovation and compared them to Soviet ministries.

Largent is the rep of the wireless providers, so he had to respond, of course. But his argument basically was a complaint that Walt was not at CTIA’s show to see all the fabulous innovations, and he then also declined to address the core issues that Walt’s essay raised.

Wrote Largent:

If Mr. Mossberg were here at CTIA’s Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2007 show in San Francisco, he’d see what the wireless world really looks like today. Instead of writing about the old 2G world, he’d see firsthand how we have moved into the 3G broadband world, where options open up for consumers.

“He would see that there are more than 600 different wireless devices available to consumers in the U.S. today, from carriers, manufacturers and third-party retailers. Wireless customers in the U.S. can exchange voice, text and photo messages, can download or watch streaming videos and listen to radio programs. There are more than 150 wireless companies providing service across the country, from nationwide to regional and local providers. And dozens more companies have entered and exited the marketplace, driven by entrepreneurial vision and ambition to make their mark. If those things don’t define the meaning of a free market, what does?”

Largent went on to claim the industry was not static or stodgy and definitely not Kremlinesque, and noted that U.S. customers got the benefit of cheaper handsets than in Europe, for example.

What he left out? That those supposed benefits come at the steep price of limited choice, onerous contracts and inability to be, well, mobile, all of which Walt discussed and Largent did not address.

There was indeed a lot of innovation to be found at the CTIA show from a lot of great small companies, but that innovation comes in spite of the carriers and not because of them.

As Walt wrote:

Let me be clear: Any company that spends billions to build and maintain a wireless network deserves to be paid for its use, and deserves to make a profit and a return for its shareholders. Not only that, but companies like Verizon Wireless or AT&T Inc. should be free to build or sell phones or software or services.

“But, in my view, they shouldn’t be allowed to pick and choose what phones run on their networks, and what software and services run on those phones. We need a wireless mobile device ecosystem that mirrors the PC/Internet ecosystem, one where the consumers’ purchase of network capacity is separate from their purchase of the hardware and software they use on that network. It will take government action, or some disruptive technology or business innovation, to get us there.”

Well, Steve?

Also, what is with this odd graphic from the CTIA show–the slogan for the event is: “One Show. Two Personalities. Enterprise. Entertainment.”

But the picture is a six-person beast (pictured here) that scares us a little bit. (Largent, not so much.)