Sprint sets a new record

[Nickel]

Since I authored the thread being referenced, I will chime in.

 

In those BEAs where Clearwire has "license protection" sites, overlaying them with band 25 LTE 1900 will be enough to provide "substantial service."

 

In those BEAs where Clearwire has no "license protection" sites, Sprint may choose to accept FCC penalties or walk away from the spectrum licenses.  Even modest buildout with almost zero ROI may not be worth it.

 

We shall see in the next two years.  But I titled my thread "potential" for good reason.

 

AJ

What, exactly, is the definition of substantial service?

[lordsutch]

What, exactly, is the definition of substantial service?

 

The definition appears vague (the FCC has only revoked licenses for lack of substantial service on rare occasions). That said, I'd look to the footprints of the affiliate market PCS buildouts to get a sense of what Sprint accepted as a bare minimum at the time; granted, the affiliates probably went beyond "substantial service" to address competitive issues, but they still tended to build out a lot less coverage than Sprint's first-party markets did. One time when I was looking around I did find some maps that Sprint had sent the FCC to validate it had provided substantial service in various markets, including POPs estimates; they're probably in the FCC database somewhere.

 

Similarly, Sprint also has some obligation to operate service on ESMR in at least some of the areas where Nextel provided coverage but Sprint no longer has coverage, or risk losing the licenses.

 

EDIT: Here's an example of the maps I was discussing. Hopefully the link works...

[Conan Kudo]

The definition appears vague (the FCC has only revoked licenses for lack of substantial service on rare occasions). That said, I'd look to the footprints of the affiliate market PCS buildouts to get a sense of what Sprint accepted as a bare minimum at the time; granted, the affiliates probably went beyond "substantial service" to address competitive issues, but they still tended to build out a lot less coverage than Sprint's first-party markets did. One time when I was looking around I did find some maps that Sprint had sent the FCC to validate it had provided substantial service in various markets, including POPs estimates; they're probably in the FCC database somewhere.

 

Similarly, Sprint also has some obligation to operate service on ESMR in at least some of the areas where Nextel provided coverage but Sprint no longer has coverage, or risk losing the licenses.

 

EDIT: Here's an example of the maps I was discussing. Hopefully the link works...

The definition is intentionally vague, because it is impossible to define what is considered "substantial" service when you are intentionally not defining what specific technology you are using. Sure you could use some form of "user" benchmarks (like guaranteed network performance levels within the license area), but those are woozy and not likely to hold up because they don't address the fundamental matter of "covering" people in terms of an RF license. Population percentages would work, except the FCC has a lot of trouble enforcing that requirement on virtually all licenses that have such a requirement.

 

Instead, the FCC allows the individual RF license operator to make a case for defining their work as "substantial service", and it is approved on a case-by-case basis.