PCS H and Dish redux

[bigsnake49]

Interesting speculation on the subject by non other than Tim Farrar:

 

http://tmfassociates.com/blog/2013/09/12/give-me-a-place-to-stand/

 

Some of the highlights:

 

"DISH’s submission to the FCC earlier this week, offering concessions on 700MHz E block power limits (thereby securing support from AT&T), and the prospects of a bid of up to $0.50/MHzPOP ($1.5B) for the PCS H block, in exchange for the option to use the 2000-2020MHz AWS-4 uplink band for downlink operation, confirms that DISH’s plan is to use LightSquared’s L-band spectrum for uplink operations. That would presumably be paired with the 2180-2200MHZ AWS-4 downlink, which would give DISH the opportunity to offer the 2000-2020MHz band as supplementary downlink for PCS operators. It also confirms that DISH’s two targets for a potential partnership are now AT&T and Sprint, since they will be the two main LTE operators in the PCS band, and strongly suggests that DISH no longer has any interest in buying T-Mobile (though a deal with DirecTV remains plausible in 2014).

 

Its important to remember that now it hasn’t got access to the Clearwire spectrum, DISH is essentially offering a partnership under which it would host AT&T or Sprint’s mobile spectrum (most likely in the WCS and BRS/EBS bands respectively) on its planned fixed broadband wireless network (which would use the AWS-4 downlink and L-band uplink for backhaul). In other words, DISH becomes a tower company, offering small cell hosting for as little as $100-$200 per cell per month, because DISH’s wireless broadband subscribers will be providing the site (on their rooftop satellite TV antenna) and the power for free."

 

Since we are speculating, what about an exchange of the supplemental PCS downlink which would allow Sprint to utilize PCS G, PCS H and AWS-4 2000-2020 for a contiguous 30MHz, for EBS leases?

Edited September 12, 2013 by bigsnake49

[ericdabbs]

Interesting speculation on the subject by non other than Tim Farrar:

 

http://tmfassociates.com/blog/2013/09/12/give-me-a-place-to-stand/

 

Some of the highlights:

 

"DISH’s submission to the FCC earlier this week, offering concessions on 700MHz E block power limits (thereby securing support from AT&T), and the prospects of a bid of up to $0.50/MHzPOP ($1.5B) for the PCS H block, in exchange for the option to use the 2000-2020MHz AWS-4 uplink band for downlink operation, confirms that DISH’s plan is to use LightSquared’s L-band spectrum for uplink operations. That would presumably be paired with the 2180-2200MHZ AWS-4 downlink, which would give DISH the opportunity to offer the 2000-2020MHz band as supplementary downlink for PCS operators. It also confirms that DISH’s two targets for a potential partnership are now AT&T and Sprint, since they will be the two main LTE operators in the PCS band, and strongly suggests that DISH no longer has any interest in buying T-Mobile (though a deal with DirecTV remains plausible in 2014).

 

Its important to remember that now it hasn’t got access to the Clearwire spectrum, DISH is essentially offering a partnership under which it would host AT&T or Sprint’s mobile spectrum (most likely in the WCS and BRS/EBS bands respectively) on its planned fixed broadband wireless network (which would use the AWS-4 downlink and L-band uplink for backhaul). In other words, DISH becomes a tower company, offering small cell hosting for as little as $100-$200 per cell per month, because DISH’s wireless broadband subscribers will be providing the site (on their rooftop satellite TV antenna) and the power for free."

 

Since we are speculating, what about an exchange of the supplemental PCS downlink which would allow Sprint to utilize PCS G, PCS H and AWS-4 2000-2020 for a contiguous 30MHz, for EBS leases?

 

Thank goodness that Dish has at least for the time being lost interest in purchasing Tmobile.  I wouldn't recommend any wireless carrier being bought by Charlie.

 

In terms of the proposed deal that you presented for buying the 2000-2020 MHz spectrum for supplemental downlink in exchange for some EBS leases, I think it should be something to consider at some point but not now.  We don't know what Son has in mind of how much of the 2500 MHz spectrum he wants to keep for the Sprint network and not to mention future network equipment support (RRUs and antennas) to incorporate the 2000-2020 MHz frequencies.  No other wireless carrier is using that band and that will cost a lot of money.

 

There are still many hurdles that need to happen before this becomes even a reality.  Dish still needs to get FCC approval to use the Lightsquared L-band spectrum for uplink operations and Sprint is still tied up with Network Vision and needs to focus on other spectrum auctions like the PCS H and 600 MHz auctions.

[Nickel]

Thank goodness that Dish has at least for the time being lost interest in purchasing Tmobile.  I wouldn't recommend any wireless carrier being bought by Charlie.

Not to mention that Dish and T-Mobile would have an insane amount of debt.