Whither AWS-3

[bigsnake49]

The FCC has said that at its March 31 open meeting the five-member panel will "consider a Report and Order that would adopt allocation, licensing, service, and technical rules to make available for auction 65 MHz of AWS-3 spectrum for flexible use services, including mobile broadband."

 

The FCC is proposing to auction the 1695-1710 MHz, 1755-1780 MHz, and 2155-2180 MHz bands, collectively known as AWS-3. Congress has directed the FCC to allocate and license the 2155-2180 MHz band by February 2015.

According to an FCC official familiar with proposal for the AWS-3 auction, the auction will have two sub-bands, each with its own band plan. One of the sub-bands will consist of one unpaired 5 MHz block (1695-1700 MHz) and one unpaired 10 MHz block (1700-1710 MHz), licensed in Economic Area (EA) geographies. The other sub-band will consist of paired spectrum: one 5x5 MHz block (1755-1760 and 2155-2160 MHz) licensed in Cellular Market Area (CMA) geographies, and two 10x10 MHz blocks (1760-1770 and 2160-2170 MHz, and then 1770-1780 and 2170-2180  MHz) licensed in EA geographies.

Read more: AT&T praises FCC's license and band plans for AWS-3 auction - FierceWireless http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-praises-fccs-plans-aws-3-auction/2014-03-18#ixzz2wNNDuKY7 
 

I don't see Sprint participating in this auction, do you?

 

[lilotimz]

Nope. I see ATT going all in though. 

[Destroyallcubes]

Yep the other three would try and get it. I could see ATT going after the two 10x10 blocks. They prolly will do their best for at least one 10x10 block, maybe even Verizon trying for the other, leaving T-Mobile with the smaller chunk. But that's what I think what might happen

[Nickel]

That band plan:

[jamisonshaw125]

[S4GRU]

AT&T pretty much has to go for it.  And they probably will be willing to pay any price for the 10x10 chunks in the big cities.  But VZW needs to plan for long term capacity too.  

 

Since both Verizon and AT&T are Band 4 players, I could see them getting into bidding wars in key markets, with sky high prices.  I would suggest Sprint save it's money and stay out of this mess.  They don't need it.  T-Mobile probably should look at some more long term spectrum for capacity.  However, getting in the middle of a bidding war won't make sense for them fiscally either.  But I bet the Magenta lovers will be screaming for Tmo to bid for it all, much like the Sprint Fan Boys were certain that Sprint must get H block too.

 

Robert

[NYC126]

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/t-mobile-fccs-tentative-aws-3-spectrum-auction-rules-favor-verizon-att/2014-03-19

 

Tmobile is already crying about it.

[Destroyallcubes]

AT&T pretty much has to go for it.  And they probably will be willing to pay any price for the 10x10 chunks in the big cities.  But VZW needs to plan for long term capacity too.  

 

Since both Verizon and AT&T are Band 4 players, I could see them getting into bidding wars in key markets, with sky high prices.  I would suggest Sprint save it's money and stay out of this mess.  They don't need it.  T-Mobile probably should look at some more long term spectrum for capacity.  However, getting in the middle of a bidding war won't make sense for them fiscally either.  But I bet the Magenta lovers will be screaming for Tmo to bid for it all, much like the Sprint Fan Boys were certain that Sprint must get H block too.

 

Robert

Wouldn't it be best for T-Mobile to get the 5x5 so they don't overspend for the AWS. AT&T and Verizon would shoot the price up of the 10x10 blocks just so T-Mobile can not get the bigger blocks of spectrum to use against them. I can see T-Mobile trying, but AT&T will be able to pay just a little bit more for the larger chunks, as they could easily use it for CA, Verizon too. T-Mobile will get left out of the bigger chunks. But the rules have not been set for this auction so that could change very easily, plus if a merger starts to seem more plausible, then maybe it would change even more so.

[Destroyallcubes]

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/t-mobile-fccs-tentative-aws-3-spectrum-auction-rules-favor-verizon-att/2014-03-19

Tmobile is already crying about it.

They are crying because it may and probably will mean that T-Mobile will not be able to say "fastest" anymore. And they think anything that goes against them is unfair, and so they sit their and cry in the corner, and cry.

[S4GRU]

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/t-mobile-fccs-tentative-aws-3-spectrum-auction-rules-favor-verizon-att/2014-03-19

 

Tmobile is already crying about it.

I agree with Tmo. Having the 10x10 in such gigantic regions just pretty much means that the duopoly will end up with them. They should all be licensed by BEA and in 5x5 chunks.

 

If the duopoly wants a nationwide 10x10 chunk, then they should buy two adjacent 5x5 in all the BEA's. This would give local and smaller providers who have use of the spectrum a shot at it where they can use it. And it will also result in higher income from the bidding for taxpayers.

 

Having really large geographic licenses in 10x10 really only benefits Verizon and AT&T. And using smaller licensing regions and smaller spectrum chunks still gives them an equal shot. They just don't get their more than equal shot that they're looking for.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

 

[NYC126]

Sprint already said they will add another 20 mhz to band 41 this year and another 20 mhz by mid 2015. Looks to Me tmobile will end as last in speed.

[S4GRU]

Sprint already said they will add another 20 mhz to band 41 this year and another 20 mhz by mid 2015. Looks to Me tmobile will end as last in speed.

T-Mobile on average has more spectrum than either AT&T or Verizon in more Top 100 markets. Right now. This AWS band expansion could possibly tip those totals to favor either AT&T or VZW. But that is only potentially. They have to win it. Right now, Tmo is sitting pretty.

 

Of course, Sprint has much more than any of them in just Band 41 alone.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

 

[jroepcke51]

T-Mobile on average has more spectrum than either AT&T or Verizon in more Top 100 markets. Right now. This AWS band expansion could possibly tip those totals to favor either AT&T or VZW. But that is only potentially. They have to win it. Right now, Tmo is sitting pretty.

 

Of course, Sprint has much more than any of them in just Band 41 alone.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

Band 41 alone. I love it.

[CaryTheLabelGuy]

Total. World. Domination.

.

.

.

(Lol)

[transitwatch889]

Couldn't they use this a way of showing how the duo of vzw and t are favored, and a merger would benefit help scale as they want a competitive industry but remain to tip the scale in favor of the big 2 repeatedly. Or would that just anger the officials on calling them out on there horse dung?

[ericdabbs]

I agree with Tmo. Having the 10x10 in such gigantic regions just pretty much means that the duopoly will end up with them. They should all be licensed by BEA and in 5x5 chunks.

 

If the duopoly wants a nationwide 10x10 chunk, then they should buy two adjacent 5x5 in all the BEA's. This would give local and smaller providers who have use of the spectrum a shot at it where they can use it. And it will also result in higher income from the bidding for taxpayers.

 

Having really large geographic licenses in 10x10 really only benefits Verizon and AT&T. And using smaller licensing regions and smaller spectrum chunks still gives them an equal shot. They just don't get their more than equal shot that they're looking for.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

I agree as well.  I think there should not be any 10x10 spectrum blocks allowed but rather sold in 5x5 blocks.  Also I agree with not selling them by EAs but rather BEAs.  Long up hill battle for Tmobile since it doesn't have Sprint to help backup them up in advocating for smaller spectrum blocks for the AWS-3 auction unlike the 600 MHz auction which has Sprint and Tmobile on the same side in terms of its vision for the auction. 

[bigsnake49]

Who will go for the TDD portion? Dish?

[S4GRU]

Who will go for the TDD portion? Dish?

Is it actually TDD? If it is directly adjacent to FDD spectrum then it can't be used for TDD. It would need some separation. It just may be one way, like AT&T's Qualcomm 700 spectrum. Which could be useful with CA. To bind two downlink slices with one uplink slice.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

 

[bigsnake49]

Is it actually TDD? If it is directly adjacent to FDD spectrum then it can't be used for TDD. It would need some separation. It just may be one way, like AT&T's Qualcomm 700 spectrum. Which could be useful with CA. To bind two downlink slices with one uplink slice.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

"One unpaired 5 MHz block (1695-1700 MHz) and one unpaired 10 MHz block (1700-1710 MHz), licensed in Economic Area (EA) geographies."

 

What is it next to?

[bigsnake49]

"One unpaired 5 MHz block (1695-1700 MHz) and one unpaired 10 MHz block (1700-1710 MHz), licensed in Economic Area (EA) geographies."

 

What is it next to?

 

Some more info:

 

Licenses available: The National Telecommunications and Information Administration concluded that the 1695-1710 MHz band could be reallocated from federal to commercial use "subject to geographic sharing requirements based on establishing exclusion zones around specified federal meteorological-satellite earth station sites," specifically at 18 sites around the country. The spectrum has been identified as uplink spectrum and CTIA would like to see it paired with 15 MHz of downlink spectrum.

 

Read more: 1695-1710 MHz (to be paired with 15 MHz of spectrum) - Spectrum auction guide - FierceWireless http://www.fiercewireless.com/special-reports/1695-1710-mhz-be-paired-15-mhz-spectrum-spectrum-auction-guide#ixzz2wbABliTu 

 

From the graphic in that articles it seems to be adjacent to the uplink portion of AWS-1.

[linhpham2]

In related AWS news, AT&T is on a shopping spree: From Phonescoop: "

AT&T Seeks to Buy More 700MHz and AWS Spectrum

Yesterday, 2:27 PM   by Eric M. Zeman

AT&T has filed preliminary paperwork with the Federal Communications Commission seeking to transfer spectrum licenses and other assets from several small companies to itself. The companies include NTCH with its affiliate WGH Communications and Milkyway Broadband (both 700MHz), and Paul Bunyon Rural Telephone Company (AWS). Specifically, NTCH/WGH would transfer to AT&T 12MHz of Lower 700MHz B Block spectrum in 18 counties in six Cellular Market Areas (CMAs) across parts of Georgia, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas. Milkway would transfer to AT&T 12MHz of Lower 700MHz C Block spectrum in 71 counties in 15 CMAs across parts of Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. Last, Paul Bunyon would transfer to AT&T 20MHz of AWS-1 A Block spectrum in nine counties in three CMAs in parts of Minnesota and North Dakota. AT&T said the spectrum transfers will allow it to increase the coverage and performance of its LTE 4G network. The FCC has accepted the initial applications."

[Conan Kudo]

"One unpaired 5 MHz block (1695-1700 MHz) and one unpaired 10 MHz block (1700-1710 MHz), licensed in Economic Area (EA) geographies."

 

What is it next to?

The 1695-1710 MHz block is next to AWS-1 1710-1755 MHz uplink spectrum. It can't be used for downlink CA effectively. Maybe uplink CA. But there are some murmurs of pairing it with 2095-2110MHz to extend the AWS band even further.

 

1695-1710 / 2095-2110 + 1755-1780 / 2155-2180 would extend the AWS band by a total of  2x40MHz. The total AWS band would effectively be 2x85MHz, the largest FDD paired band used globally. If Dish has its way, the 3GPP could even wind up authorizing the creation of a band that covers 1695-1800 / 2095-2200 MHz just so that Dish's AWS-4 band would be usable within a single band class (intra-band CA). Such a band would be by far the largest FDD band authorized for cellular network use, at 2x105MHz.

[bigsnake49]

I

 

The 1695-1710 MHz block is next to AWS-1 1710-1755 MHz uplink spectrum. It can't be used for downlink CA effectively. Maybe uplink CA. But there are some murmurs of pairing it with 2095-2110MHz to extend the AWS band even further.

 

1695-1710 / 2095-2110 + 1755-1780 / 2155-2180 would extend the AWS band by a total of  2x40MHz. The total AWS band would effectively be 2x85MHz, the largest FDD paired band used globally. If Dish has its way, the 3GPP could even wind up authorizing the creation of a band that covers 1695-1800 / 2095-2200 MHz just so that Dish's AWS-4 band would be usable within a single band class (intra-band CA). Such a band would be by far the largest FDD band authorized for cellular network use, at 2x105MHz.

 

Who will bid for a unpaired chunk of spectrum that cannot be used for downlink?

[richy]

I

 

 

Who will bid for a unpaired chunk of spectrum that cannot be used for downlink?

 

Just an uneducated guess, but potentially could you use this as uplink alongside a chunk of TDD spectrum already owned and just devote all the TDD chunk to downlink?  It seems a stretch and I have no idea if it is technically possible. 

[bigsnake49]

Just an uneducated guess, but potentially could you use this as uplink alongside a chunk of TDD spectrum already owned and just devote all the TDD chunk to downlink?  It seems a stretch and I have no idea if it is technically possible. 

 

Unless the FCC also auctions some downlink spectrum, this will be useless spectrum. If it can be used as TDD that will be fine, but strictly for uplink, no. If it can be used as downlink, then Dish might be interested.