AT&T accuses T-Mobile of buying spectrum it doesn’t need to keep it out of rivals’ hands،
Mid-band spectrum has become the Goldilocks of wireless. Signals travel further than mmWave and provide faster downlink and uplink speeds than low band. This is something T-Mobile figured out before AT&T and Verizon did. While these two wireless providers believed that starting their 5G deployments using mmWave spectrum was the smart thing to do, they seemed to forget that because these signals don’t travel far, very few of their subscribers could take advantage of the very high speeds. 5G speeds.
T-Mobile took a completely different approach than Verizon and AT&T and it paid off
T-Mobile’s 5G layer cake was the blueprint for its 5G rollout
T Mobile has expanded its mid-band holdings over the years by purchasing more 2.5 GHz airwaves and also C-band spectrum.
ReadingLighta part of
T MobileCompetitors AT&T and Dish say the FCC should impose stricter limits on the amount of spectrum a company can buy. Dish Wireless, which is poised to become the fourth-largest 5G network in the United States to replace Sprint,
recently submitted a filing to the FCC.
In its filing, Dish wrote that the FCC should lower the threshold for triggering a spectral display from 33% to 25%. In other words, the review would be necessary when an operator proposes a transaction that would leave it with more than 25% of the spectrum available for commercial services in a given market. If a company’s purchase of airwaves requires FCC oversight of spectrum, the regulatory agency takes a closer look at the transaction and decides whether the acquirer should give up additional spectrum in the name of wireless competition.
In 2014, the FCC used the Spectrum Screen to focus on spectrum with frequencies below 1 GHz and two years later added rules for mmWave spectrum (typically above 20 GHz). AT&T lobbied in a proposal asking the FCC to consider performing spectrum controls on transactions involving mid-band spectrum between 2.5 GHz and 6 GHz. The FCC would consider this proposal.
AT&T calls T-Mobile’s purchase of additional mid-band spectrum an ‘anti-competitive foreclosure’
Maybe AT&T is confused T MobileThe smart decision to purchase Sprint for its 2.5 GHz mid-band spectrum is anti-competitive. This was actually a brilliant strategy that highlights the mistake AT&T made and Verizon did, leaving the pair lagging behind in focusing on mmWave. Instead of making this admission, AT&T told the FCC: “T-Mobile’s spectrum strategy – that is, accumulating an outsized share of a key and scarce input that it does not have The intention to deploy now, thus denying it to competitors and increasing their costs – is a problem. classic example of anti-competitive foreclosure. »
Even
T Mobile believes that some changes are necessary. The nation’s second-largest wireless service provider
told the FCC“The commission’s current spectrum policies and rules are undoubtedly outdated and in need of reform.” However, the operator said that limiting the amount of spectrum a company can own is not an easy thing to do in the 5G era.
T MobileThe solution is to limit the amount of spectrum a company can purchase in an FCC spectrum auction.
“Initial limits are the most effective way to ensure robust auction participation and rapid, efficient licensing to make auctioned spectrum available to consumers,”
T Mobile » wrote in its FCC filing. Certainly
T Mobile does not want draconian limits to be imposed on spectrum auctions by agencies. After all, the company’s 5G plans actually began in 2017, when it spent nearly $8 billion to
win 45% of the 600 MHz low-band spectrum auctioned by the FCC and in use today for its national Extended Range 5G network.
