T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG, has slated the airwaves, or spectrum, for its development over the next several years of a high-speed mobile broadband network to keep pace with its larger rivals. The spectrum will bolster T-Mobile’s network in 12 large U.S. markets, according to a statement from the Bellevue, Wash.-based carrier.

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Earlier this month, Mr. Falcone said he was considering seeking bankruptcy protection for LightSquared, a venture that has consumed billions of dollars from his funds. Mr. Falcone began amassing spectrum — or rights to use the nation’s airwaves — last decade in an ambitious plan to build a nationwide, high-speed network from scratch. But the plan hit a roadblock when the U.S. military and others complained that the planned service would disrupt global positioning system equipment.

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Commerce Department officials released a report Tuesday on a band of government airwaves long coveted by wireless carriers saying that while it would be possible to switch the block to commercial use, it could cost $18 billion and take a decade. Instead of moving federal agencies off of the airwaves and auctioning them off to wireless carriers, Commerce officials instead proposed that commercial and government users share them.

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T-Mobile — which just months ago was pushing antitrust authorities to approve its failed deal to sell itself to AT&T Inc. — argued in an FCC filing that Verizon Wireless’s deal poses “a clear threat to competition” and would allow the nation’s largest cellphone carrier “to accumulate even more spectrum on top of an already dominant position, while checkmating crucial avenues for growth of its smaller competitors.”

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Congressional negotiators were still hammering out details, but the legislation would authorize the Federal Communications Commission to auction off TV-station airwaves to wireless companies for next-generation phones and gadgets. A portion of the auction proceeds would help cover the cost of extending jobless benefits, which is also part of the payroll-tax legislation.

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LightSquared made the payments to Sprint last year as part of the companies’ 15-year agreement to share network buildout expenses and wireless airwaves. Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse said in January that the carrier had put its investment in LightSquared on hold as it worked to resolve concerns its network interferes with global positioning systems.

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The crunch will come from a variety of corners, from wireless cameras for filming close-ups, walkie-talkies for coordinating volunteers and, of course, millions of spectators looking to upload their photos and videos to gloat to non-ticket-holding relatives.

“The event presents a unique logistical challenge never faced before by the U.K., with a need to assign up to 20,000 wireless frequencies to be used for the Games in London, more than double the number usually assigned in a year,” Britain’s Ofcom said in a statement.

Ofcom, the agency responsible for managing the British airwaves, said it has been working for six years on a plan. To get the needed spectrum, Ofcom says it will temporarily borrow some spectrum held by the government, use some frequencies made available by the digital-TV switchover, and offer up airwaves that are in the process of being auctioned off but not yet in use. Unlicensed spectrum will also be tapped, it said.

To handle all these airwaves and avoid interference, Ofcom said it has built a state-of-the art airwave management system, and has also been doing tests during high-profile events, such as last year’s royal wedding.

A final test will come at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in early June, with the Games themselves starting July 27.

“Ready and prepared for this challenge, Ofcom recognises that there is no room for complacency,” Ofcom COO Jill Ainscough said in a statement. “We are working behind the scenes to make this capacity available, to ensure that this demand is met.”

The Federal Communications Commission signed off on the deal Thursday on a 3-1 vote, with minor conditions, FCC officials said. The approval means that AT&T and Qualcomm could close the deal by the end of the year.

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The FCC is proposing to make it easier for the winners of a 1997 airwaves auction to use those airwaves for mobile wireless Internet and phone use. Until now, a dispute about power levels and potential interference has meant the companies were limited in how they could use the airwaves they own.

The FCC is scheduled to vote on the proposal in May as part of a broader effort to devote more airwaves for wireless Internet services. A FCC spokeswoman declined to comment on the specifics of the proposal.

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The agency took a rare shot at Verizon Communications (VZ) CEO Ivan Seidenberg on Thursday, calling him out by name for comments earlier this week that cast doubt on whether carriers need as much spectrum as the government wants to give them.

In its National Broadband Plan, released last month, the FCC said it planned to free up a sizable 500 MHz of spectrum by 2020 for wireless carriers like AT&T (T) and Verizon Wireless, which Verizon jointly owns with Vodafone Group. Much of that will come from TV broadcasters, and the move was widely seen as a coup for carriers who have been calling for more airwaves to meet growing data traffic from customers surfing the Web, watching videos and using applications on their phones.

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A: TiVo digital video recorders can capture free, over-the-air TV shows, if you connect your antenna to the TiVo box. Also, you can use a properly equipped computer to do this. Some Windows computers come with a built-in TV tuner, and Windows itself comes with functionality that allows you to watch TV shows and record them to the hard disk for later playback. You can also buy add-on TV tuners for PCs that lack them. Macs don’t come with hardware and software for watching and recording TV shows, but you can buy add-on hardware and software for Macs that do this as well.

I migrated to a Mac about two years ago. One program I keep using in Windows is Microsoft Money. Microsoft has announced it is discontinuing support for the product. Do you know of any Mac alternatives out there?

A: There’s a Mac version of Quicken, but it isn’t great. Intuit, which makes Quicken, is bringing out a new, supposedly better Mac version soon, but I haven’t seen it. There’s also a product called Moneydance for the Mac (and Windows) that looks decent, but I haven’t reviewed it. Another option is to keep using Windows and switch to Quicken on that platform, though converting from Money may be time-consuming.

My cellphone is ready to be replaced. I am considering the new Droid. although I wouldn’t use it for Internet browsing, but rather as a pure communications device and to keep my calendar and perhaps a few other apps. With such limited use, is it worth it to buy a Droid?

A: I’m not sure which “few other apps” you expect to use, so it’s hard to say which smartphone platform would be best for you, since the leading platforms have different varieties and numbers of apps. But if you really expect your use to be very limited, you might want to look for something that costs less than the $150-$200 a Droid would set you back. For instance, you can get a Palm Pixi for as little as $25 or its more powerful sibling, the Pre, for around $80. You can even get a BlackBerry for well under $100, or an iPhone for $99, or a different phone that runs the same Android operating system as the Droid does for $100 or less. I suggest you consider which apps you expect to run, or how much variety in apps you desire, then weigh your budget, consider which network you prefer and compare models.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online for free at the All Things Digital web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Earlier this week, Verizon filed an appeal seeking to overturn the rules the Federal Communications Commission plans to apply to the auction next January of the coveted 700-megahertz wireless spectrum. Seems it doesn’t much care for the idea of an open network that would allow consumers to use the phones and software of their choice. In a filing to a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., Verizon Wireless said the rules are “arbitrary, capricious, unsupported by substantial evidence and otherwise contrary to law.”

The appeal drew a quick and critical reply from Google, which has pledged to meet the $4.6 billion-bid minimum if open-access requirements were attached to the auction. “The nation’s spectrum airwaves are not the birthright of any one company,” Chris Sacca, Google’s head of special initiatives, wrote in a post to Google’s public policy blog. “They are a unique and valuable public resource that belong to all Americans. The FCC’s auction rules are designed to allow U.S. consumers–for the first time–to use their handsets with any network they desire, and download and use the lawful software applications of their choice. It’s regrettable that Verizon has decided to use the court system to try to prevent consumers from having any choice of innovative services.”

And really, that’s essentially what Verizon is doing. It wants to control which phones and software applications people use on its network–which, as Jason Devitt, co-founder and CEO of Skydeck, recently pointed out, is a little ridiculous. “For some reason I have never been able to understand, I have to ask permission of Verizon Wireless to attach a computer or the computers that they now call phones to their wireless networks,” Devitt said during a July House Subcommittee hearing on wireless services.. “I have to ask their permission to run applications and services on those phones.”