AT&T Acquiring Sprint WCS for undisclosed sum

[Conan Kudo]

Sprint confirms it’s selling all 19 WCS spectrum licenses to AT&T for an undisclosed price. $S

— Walter Piecyk (@WaltBTIG) May 13, 2014

Now all your WCS are belong to AT&T...

[jefbal99]

Wish they had gotten PCS spectrum in return, but cash is cash

[JimBob]

AT&T might use the WCS spectrum licences for in-flight Wi-Fi.

 

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-looking-buy-all-sprints-23-ghz-wcs-spectrum-licenses-possibly-flight-wi/2014-05-13

[Cubbiefan82]

I hope they can close the deal soon, it just that much more that counts against att for the 600 auction. I am not surprised sprint is getting rid of it, not worth it when you have nationwide band 41 now

[Cubbiefan82]

This was from 2012-UBS analyst John Hodulik wrote  in a research note, arguing that Sprint might fetch around $130 million if it were to sell its WCS spectrum.

Read more: Analysis: AT&T's WCS spectrum shopping spree won't catch it up to Verizon - FierceWireless http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/analysis-atts-wcs-spectrum-shopping-spree-wont-catch-it-verizon/2012-08-03#ixzz31dTbbSIY
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[Destroyallcubes]

At&t should be forced to divest some PCS to sprint in these locations where they have most of the spectrum. If that happened several markets would have 3 5x5 MHz bands

[JWMaloney]

At&t should be forced to divest some PCS to sprint in these locations where they have most of the spectrum. If that happened several markets would have 3 5x5 MHz bands

 

AT&T doesn't have extra PCS to divest in all of those locations. Where I live, for instance, AT&T doesn't own any AWS, so they just finished deploying LTE on their last available PCS spectrum for capacity.

[WiWavelength]

At&t should be forced to divest some PCS to sprint in these locations where they have most of the spectrum. If that happened several markets would have 3 5x5 MHz bands

AT&T doesn't have extra PCS to divest in all of those locations. Where I live, for instance, AT&T doesn't own any AWS, so they just finished deploying LTE on their last available PCS spectrum for capacity.

 

Corresponding locations are irrelevant.  Sprint could divest WCS spectrum to AT&T in Kalamazoo, receive in return PCS spectrum in Timbuktu.  So, excess PCS spectrum availability in the affected WCS markets is a non factor.

 

Besides, this is a modest transaction -- if the $130 million estimate is roughly accurate.  Heck, Dan spends that much on aftershave.  But it will not get you much PCS spectrum.

 

AJ

[bigsnake49]

I hope they do something with their 900MHz SMR spectrum. They need to rationalize their spectrum holdings. And yes I know about the 3MHz LTE slice planned for that spectrum. The best that Sprint can do is sell it to a utility consortium to be used for smart grid applications.

Edited May 13, 2014 by bigsnake49

[digiblur]

Wish they had gotten PCS spectrum in return, but cash is cash

They use all of theirs here. Jammed pack on cellular, PCS, 700, and a lot of AWS in high capacity areas. Never understood why Sprint has channels open to use but EVDO was at 1x speeds. All with an RRU being half utilized

[cdk]

They use all of theirs here. Jammed pack on cellular, PCS, 700, and a lot of AWS in high capacity areas. Never understood why Sprint has channels open to use but EVDO was at 1x speeds. All with an RRU being half utilized

 

Ericsson just tells Sprint that everything is fine...

[Destroyallcubes]

Corresponding locations are irrelevant.  Sprint could divest WCS spectrum to AT&T in Kalamazoo, receive in return PCS spectrum in Timbuktu.  So, excess PCS spectrum availability in the affected WCS markets is a non factor.

 

Besides, this is a modest transaction -- if the $130 million estimate is roughly accurate.  Heck, Dan spends that much on aftershave.  But it will not get you much PCS spectrum.

 

AJ

  

AT&T doesn't have extra PCS to divest in all of those locations. Where I live, for instance, AT&T doesn't own any AWS, so they just finished deploying LTE on their last available PCS spectrum for capacity.

Well I know Houston/NOLA markets could really use it. But I believe ATT has plenty PCS in Houston to divest,maybe not so much in NOLA

[EmeraldReporter]

How much spectrum was it? How many Mhz were shaved off our total count?

[centermedic]

I wonder if this was part of a back door deal to not protest Sprint buying T-mo.

[Ascertion]

I didn't even know Sprint had WCS spectrum. I knew they had a small amount in the 900mhz range but it's very little and not really worth anything to Sprint.

 

Sent from my LG-LS980

[duddys31]

So is sprint planning on using the 900mhz for lte for sprint users? And is this spectrum nationwide also and any timetable of when it will be implemented?

[JWMaloney]

How much spectrum was it? How many Mhz were shaved off our total count?

 

In my area it was 10x10, giving them a total of 15x15, but I believe the LTE band is 10x10 due to potential interference with Sirius-XM.

 

So is sprint planning on using the 900mhz for lte for sprint users? And is this spectrum nationwide also and any timetable of when it will be implemented?

 

900 MHz LTE is for machine-to-machine communication.

[Destroyallcubes]

How much spectrum was it? How many Mhz were shaved off our total count?

iirc it was 10mhz here in East Texas

 

Edit: looked it up, they had 20 MHz here.

[Destroyallcubes]

I didn't even know Sprint had WCS spectrum. I knew they had a small amount in the 900mhz range but it's very little and not really worth anything to Sprint.

Sent from my LG-LS980

Yeah I actually was asking about it a few months ago

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/5649-does-sprint-plan-on-selling-its-wcs-spectrum-holdings/page-2

[mhammett]

I hope they do something with their 900MHz SMR spectrum. They need to rationalize their spectrum holdings. And yes I know about the 3MHz LTE slice planned for that spectrum. The best that Sprint can do is sell it to a utility consortium to be used for smart grid applications.

 

More info on this 900 SMR? How much? How wide? Does anyone else have it?

 

 

Sprint confirms it’s selling all 19 WCS spectrum licenses to AT&T for an undisclosed price.

$S

— Walter Piecyk (@WaltBTIG)

May 13, 2014

 

Now all your WCS are belong to AT&T...

 

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-looking-buy-all-sprints-23-ghz-wcs-spectrum-licenses-possibly-flight-wi/2014-05-13

[JWMaloney]

More info on this 900 SMR? How much? How wide? Does anyone else have it?

 

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-looking-buy-all-sprints-23-ghz-wcs-spectrum-licenses-possibly-flight-wi/2014-05-13

 

Their current holdings are narrowband and look like piano keys against the whole block. AJ has a nice graph of it somewhere. They will have to complete rebanding just like with 800 MHz.

[bigsnake49]

Sprint has 2.5MHz-3MHz of interleaved spectrum in the 900Mhz SMR band.

[bigsnake49]

Here's a good article on urgentcomm.com:

 

http://urgentcomm.com/fcc/wireless-trade-organizations-seek-transform-900-mhz-lmr-spectrum-lte-use?page=1

[S4GRU]

The 900MHz holdings are virtually unusable beyond narrowband operations. The expense to reband and get device support for just one or two CDMA channels is just not worth it.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[bigsnake49]

The 900MHz holdings are virtually unusable beyond narrowband operations. The expense to reband and get device support for just one or two CDMA channels is just not worth it.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

There just are not that many people to reband and you don't have to deal with PS. It will be a breeze compared with the 800MHz rebanding.