TO GO WITH AFP STORY by Rob Lever, US-IT

TO GO WITH AFP STORY by Rob Lever, US-IT-telecom-spectrum (FILES) Victor Simoni talks on his cell phone on a subway platform in the 6th Avenue station of the L line in this September 27, 2011, file photo in New York. The US is bracing for a data crunch from the surging use of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. The explosion of use of these devices for the Internet is rapidly eating up the radio spectrum allocated for mobile broadband. US regulators say the crunch could come as early as 2013 and get worse in 2014. If no action is taken, smartphone users could start to see slowdowns or dropped connections, and probably higher prices too. Some carriers are already are preparing for the crunch by imposing data caps or "throttling" speeds for smartphone users. Each mobile device -- whether it is an iPhone, Android device, Internet-connect car or gadget such as Google glasses -- connects to a carrier over the radio spectrum. AFP PHOTO/Stan HONDA/FILES (Photo credit should read STAN HONDA/AFP/GettyImages)