The keynotes this morning at the CTIA (News - Alert) Enterprise & Applications show in San Diego offered no ah hah moments, as the leaders of the association and the nation’s big three cellular service providers took the stage to offer the popular refrains. Key topics included the need for more spectrum, the impact of wireless on social change and public safety, the benefits and expected growth of cellular and M2M networks and applications, and the need for collaboration to keep all of it going.

CTIA President and CEO Steve Largent (News - Alert) got things rolling this morning by banging the drum about the need for new spectrum. He talked about the quickly multiplying demand for bandwidth, and added that by launching “voluntary” spectrum auctions, the U.S. Treasury could raise more than $30 billion and create a half million new jobs in the process.

As discussed in the premiere issue of Next Gen Mobility magazine, CTIA has been lobbying the government to reallocate spectrum and make it available at auction to its members. CTIA says it endorses the call by President Obama, Chairman Genachowski and Congress to bring 500mHz of spectrum to market in the next ten years. Under this outline, 300mHz of spectrum would come available to U.S. wireless carriers within the next five years. That spectrum would have to be below 3gHz, which CTIA officials have described as the “sweet spot” for mobile usage. The FCC (News - Alert) and the NTIA have identified a number of bands from which this spectrum could be captured. That includes spectrum at 2gHz, which is currently known as the mobile satellite spectrum; reallocating and repackaging this broadcast spectrum could create 120mHz of open spectrum. The NTIA, meanwhile, is talking about repurposing spectrum in the 755-815mHz frequency that is currently used by the Department of Defense and other government agencies; 95mHz of spectrum in that band.

Largent also talked about a new study called Wireless and the Environment put out by CTIA and BSR.

Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse, who is also CTIA chairman, then took the stage. After making some zingers about AT&T, he talked about the strength of the wireless industry (one of five trillion dollar industries, he said); public safety efforts like the Warning Alert Response Network, an effort by the cellular industry, the FCC and FEMA; how wireless can save money and grow productivity; and the need to address the problem of distracted driving.

AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega talked a lot about the importance of collaboration. He started his speech by noting that Boeing (News - Alert) invited 50 partners to create components of the recently introduced Dreamliner and went on to highlight AT&T’s recently announced Foundry effort, which involves new sites in Silicon Valley, Texas and Israel where developers can use AT&T APIs and toolkits to create wireless solutions. AT&T also has something called the Innovation Pipeline, which uses employee “crowdsourcing” to come up with new ideas, some of which AT&T funds, he explained.

“In today’s environment great ideas can come from anywhere,” he said, adding that wearable technology will be the next big thing.

Verizon Wireless (News - Alert) President and CEO Dan Mead closed out this morning’s keynotes by talking about his company’s application innovation centers, where entrepreneurs and developers come together to create next-generation connected products and applications.