AllThingsD » spectrum

T-Mobile CEO: iPhone on MetroPCS Possible, but Not Imminent

Ina Fried — Wed, 01 May 2013 19:58:54 +0000

With the MetroPCS acquisition closing on Wednesday, T-Mobile CEO John Legere said his company is ready to pounce.

“Don’t be confused,” Legere told AllThingsD. “We’re not running two companies. We are clearly going to be one integrated company that uses two brands to go to market.”

As for the iPhone coming to MetroPCS, Legere said it’s a possibility, but not a foregone conclusion.

“The answer to that is not ‘No,’” Legere said, but added, “It’s not imminent; I think that’s safe to say.”

There are two big factors. One is how T-Mobile decides it wants to position the two brands and manage its marketing.

“It’s also something that involves Apple,” Legere said, but added that “we’ve started those dialogues with our partners.”

Beyond the iPhone, though, T-Mobile plans to move quickly to introduce new devices as early as next month that bear the MetroPCS brand but run on T-Mobile’s network.

Even as it maintains the MetroPCS brand, T-Mobile wants to transition customers quickly to T-Mobile’s network. That’s critical to minimizing the time spent operating incompatible networks and to allowing T-Mobile more efficient use of its spectrum.

“This is about customer migration, not network integration,” Legere said, reiterating a point CTO Neville Ray made in an interview shortly after the deal was announced last October.

Offering MetroPCS handsets on the T-Mobile network also allows that brand to move into new cities. Legere said the company is working through a double-digit list of cities and plans to aggressively target new markets this year, though he didn’t say whether the first new cities would come in the second or third quarter.

“We’re deciding those cities this week,” Legere said. “We’re going to move fast and big.”

Meanwhile, Legere also said that T-Mobile is making good progress on its “uncarrier” approach that began last month, noting that both its prepaid and postpaid businesses are ahead of expectations, though he didn’t give specifics. He also said the company’s iPhone sales have exceeded expectations, though again he declined to give hard numbers.

Legere did say the company is on track for its goal of shifting from losing postpaid customers to gaining customers at some point this year and being positive for the full 2014.

Verizon Wireless Pursues Clearwire Spectrum

Sharon Terlep, Dana Cimilluca and Spencer E. Ante — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:18:20 +0000

Verizon Wireless has offered to pay up to $1.5 billion to buy spectrum leases from Clearwire Corp., people familiar with the matter said.

The move would give the country’s largest wireless carrier the right to use airwaves currently controlled by Clearwire in big markets in the U.S. It also further complicates a three-way series of deals in which Clearwire had agreed to sell itself to part owner Sprint Nextel Corp. and Sprint agreed to sell a controlling stake in itself to Softbank of Japan.

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Clearwire Shareholder Files Proxy Opposing Sprint Deal

Ina Fried — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:00:16 +0000

A top Clearwire shareholder is following through on its promise to wage a proxy fight against Sprint’s planned takeover of the firm.

Crest Financial — Clearwire’s largest minority shareholder — last month hired proxy solicitation firm D.F. King to help in its opposition to the deal. Crest has also sued Clearwire and its board in Delaware, arguing they have breached their fiduciary duties, and asked the Federal Communications Commission to block the deal.

“The filing of Crest’s proxy statement is the next step in our ongoing effort to block Sprint’s unfair merger offer and we are optimistic that we can do so,” Crest General Counsel David Schumacher said in a statement. “We look forward to the SEC clearing our preliminary proxy statement so that we can begin educating Clearwire shareholders in earnest about the disadvantages of the Sprint offer and the alternative future for Clearwire and its valuable trove of wireless spectrum.”

According to Crest, Sprint’s $2.97-per-share offer significantly underestimates the value of Clearwire’s wireless spectrum and other assets.

“Crest is of the opinion that it would be better for Clearwire to remain a stand-alone company, while examining opportunities to consummate alternative transactions, rather than accept the merger consideration of $2.97 in cash per share being offered to Clearwire stockholders in the Proposed Sprint-Clearwire Merger,” it said in the proxy statement.

The full preliminary proxy statement is posted on D.F. King’s website.

T-Mobile's Long iPhone Drought Nearly at an End

Ina Fried and John Paczkowski — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 23:27:14 +0000

After years of waiting, T-Mobile USA is poised to finally begin selling the iPhone.

Parent company Deutsche Telekom said in December that T-Mobile USA would start selling Apple products this year, but didn’t go into any details.

CNET reported on Monday that iPhone details will be part of T-Mobile’s big event on Tuesday.

We’re hearing T-Mobile is expected to soon have a full lineup of iPhone devices, though no announcement of a T-Mobile equipped iPad is expected on Tuesday. Even the iPhones may not be immediately available.

An Apple representative declined to comment; a T-Mobile representative said the company does not comment on “rumors or speculation.”

Scoring Apple products may seem like table stakes these days, but it is a big deal for T-Mobile, which hopes to better compete with its larger rivals thanks to an improved network, lower monthly rates and a better lineup of devices.

For the last few years, T-Mobile has had several strikes against it when competing against other major U.S. carriers.

First, the company is smaller than Sprint, Verizon and AT&T. Second, each of those rivals have now launched a high-speed LTE network.

And, then of course, there was the iPhone.

T-Mobile watched as first Verizon and then Sprint got the device while it remained on the sidelines. Without the high-demand iPhone and an LTE network, T-Mobile has been bleeding contract customers for the past several years.

But the carrier has been working hard to plug those holes. It is expected to announce an agressive LTE schedule on Tuesday. At the same time, T-Mobile has also been working to make its network more iPhone-friendly by making it compatible with the same section of 3G spectrum used by AT&T.

Genachowski's FCC Tenure Featured Push to Open Wireless Spectrum (Video)

Ina Fried — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 17:28:54 +0000

As expected, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced on Friday his plans to step down.

Genachowski will probably be best remembered for a tenure that included the commission’s opposition to AT&T’s planned merger with T-Mobile. He also pushed to open up more wireless spectrum via incentive auctions and through expanding availability of unlicensed spectrum for things such as Wi-Fi.

He spearheaded a debate around Net neutrality that established new rules, though all sides grumbled at the outcome.

Genachowski was also unique in that he came from a technology background rather than the usual broadcast or telecom arenas.

“As chair of the FCC, Chairman Genachowski has worked tirelessly to modernize our nation’s communications infrastructure and help make sure every American has access to the critical technology they need to succeed in the 21st century,” Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar said in a statement.

Advocacy group Free Press praised Genachowski for his stance in the AT&T case, but criticized him for failing to do more to stop the agenda of big corporate interests.

“Though President Obama promised his FCC chairman would not continue the Bush administration’s failed media ownership policies, Genachowski offered the exact same broken ideas that Bush’s two chairmen pushed,” Free Press CEO Craig Aaron said in a statement. “Genachowski claimed broadband was his agency’s top priority, but he stood by as prices rose and competition dwindled. He claimed to be a staunch defender of the open Internet, but his Net neutrality policies are full of loopholes and offer no guarantee that the FCC will be able to protect consumers from corporate abuse in the future.”

Of course, being FCC chairman is a tough job, given that one must muster a majority of a commission split on party lines and then avoid Congress undoing whatever it was you were trying to do in the first place.

Genachowski also made moves to modernize the agency itself, including setting up a library inside the commission offices where staffers could take a look at some of the many gadgets that they were regulating.

Finally, here’s video of Genachowski’s appearance on the D: All Things Digital stage in 2010 — first a highlight reel, and below that the full interview:

[ See post to watch video ]

Shareholder Says Clearwire Spectrum Worth Two to Three Times What Sprint Is Offering

Ina Fried — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 12:39:44 +0000

A significant Clearwire shareholder says its research shows that the company’s spectrum is worth two to three times what Sprint is offering in its takeover bid.

Crest Financial, which owns 8 percent of Clearwire’s Class A shares, says a study it commissioned from Information Age Economics confirms its position that Sprint’s offer of $2.97 per share undervalues the company.

Crest also argues in a regulatory filing with the Federal Communications Commission that the proposed deal runs contrary to the public interest, given the shortage of available spectrum.

“The merger would contradict the FCC’s stated mission to maximize spectrum availability for public consumption,” Crest said. “What’s more, it would place the country’s largest remaining spectrum portfolio in hands least equipped, by past example, to serve the best interests of the United States and its wireless consumers.”

In addition to its petitions to the FCC, Crest has sued to block the deal from going forward. Dish Network has made a rival bid for Clearwire, and asked regulators to hold off on their review of Sprint’s bid.

Sprint Hungry for More Spectrum

John Paczkowski — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:08:42 +0000

Sprint’s $2.2 billion Clearwire acquisition will give the company an enhanced spectrum portfolio, but it has no plans to stop there in its efforts to catch up with larger rivals like Verizon and AT&T.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse says the Clearwire deal (which Dish is trying to thwart) is simply a starting point. To ensure that it remains competitive in the years ahead, the company must seek even more spectrum.

“Clearwire would give us a strong spectrum position for a period of time,” Hesse told Bloomberg. “But we also have a very long-term view, and we would want to acquire more spectrum.”

Now that Sprint has tarted up its formerly weak balance sheet with an $8 billion cash infusion from Japan’s SoftBank — currently under regulatory review — the company is actually capable of executing Hesse’s plan, which it must if it hopes to make a stand against its rivals. With consumer demand for wireless data spiking, carriers are moving to increase their network capacity. And spectrum licenses are becoming increasingly difficult to find. Better to acquire additional spectrum now, than rather than scramble to make up lost ground later.

Fact-Checking the Spectrum Food Fight

Mark Cooper — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 00:28:14 +0000

The FCC has undertaken an important quest to use an incentive auction to repurpose broadcast spectrum for wireless broadband. Some in Washington oppose designating any of the recovered spectrum for unlicensed technologies. They see this process merely as a way to raise money for the U.S. Treasury, rather than focusing on the much larger and more important impact it would have on the national economy — and they believe that designating any of the recovered spectrum for unlicensed technologies, which was explicitly authorized by Congress, would reduce the auction revenue that would flow to the US Treasury. Others support an unlicensed designation and believe that a large unlicensed band will lead to “free” Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, both sides of this battle are wrong.

Those who want to auction every last hertz of spectrum overlook two basic economic facts about unlicensed spectrum:

First, if spectrum is as valuable as mobile carriers claim it is, reducing the amount of spectrum available for auction by dedicating some of it for unlicensed use should drive up the price of the remaining auctioned spectrum. So designating some unlicensed spectrum will not reduce proceeds delivered to the Treasury. Given the inelastic demand for spectrum, the price increase for the spectrum that is auctioned will result in no loss of revenue. Some of the spectrum that is likely to be useful if set aside for unlicensed use is not likely to fetch much of a price at auction (e.g. the “duplex gap”) because it is not suitable for high power 4G (LTE) wireless networks.

Second, unlicensed spectrum is the most valuable part of the wireless broadband product space by a wide margin. It supports half the traffic delivered to consumer smartphones and tablets and is the final link to the consumer for one quarter of all traffic flow delivered to users with fixed, wireline broadband. The massive amount of economic activity in the unlicensed space generates huge economic value, which in turn maximizes large tax revenues for the federal government.

Those who think that more unlicensed spectrum will lead to “free” Wi-Fi also overlook basic economic realities. Even though unlicensed spectrum is very good for consumers and the economy, it is important to recognize that not paying money at auction to gain access to unlicensed spectrum does not mean that it is free to put it to use. Quite the opposite is true. There are real costs involved in moving the exaflood of bits to and from an unlicensed hotspot. There are real costs in building and acquiring the equipment that will receive the data transmissions and to manage an unlicensed wireless network. If you talk about service for hundreds of millions of people in the U.S. and billions globally, one thing is certain — if the cost of building and operating an unlicensed network are not recovered from consumers, the network will not be built or operated.

A substantive debate on spectrum policy is a good thing. The clash of ideas will produce better decisions at the FCC. But let’s all take a deep breath and get our facts straight. A hundred years ago, public policy to allocate spectrum concluded that interference could only be controlled by giving a small number of broadcasters exclusive licenses to operate in specific frequencies. Twenty years ago, the FCC decided to try a radical new approach by allowing anyone to transmit signals into spectrum that had been considered garbage, as long as they adhered to simple technical rules. We now recognize that this radical decision led to modern-day Wi-Fi. The remarkable success of Wi-Fi demonstrates that hotspot operators and consumers will willingly pay hundreds of billions of dollars to build and use the Wi-Fi infrastructure even without the ability to exclude others granted by a license — and they are likely to do the same for the FCC’s more recent innovations related to unlicensed use between TV channels, and new unlicensed designations in the 600 MHz, 3.5 GHz and 5 GHz bands in the future.

Could new, unlicensed designations lead to new competition for cellular wireless broadband service? Maybe, but the important point is that it will be an important input to the wireless broadband space, particularly the Internet of Things that connects hundreds of billions of objects.

There are two extremely important lessons to learned from the remarkable success of unlicensed spectrum.

Policy should expand possibilities, not foreclose them.
Having dramatically different business models occupy a single product space spurs and maximizes innovation and efficiency.

It would be a huge mistake to try to pick winners and losers by favoring cellular licensed service to the exclusion of unlicensed spectrum.

Mark Cooper is the Director of Research at the Consumer Federation of America and a fellow at the Donald McGannon Center for Communications Research at Fordham University.

Dish Chairman Ergen on Why the Company Needs a Wireless Network, Anyway

Ina Fried — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 03:07:22 +0000

While it is best known for its position in the satellite business, Dish Networks has been building up wireless spectrum for quite awhile.

“First and foremost, we are a video company,” Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen said in an interview at D: Dive Into Media. But, Ergen said, once the company realized that the same network would deliver video, voice and data, it realized it might be in different businesses.

“Ideally, we’d build a network,” Ergen said, noting that all the current networks are still voice-centric. “Because we took so long to get our license, that is more difficult. That probably is outside of the grasp of reality. … It’s better to probably work with someone who is in the business.”

In addition to the wireless spectrum it already holds, Dish has made a $5.15 billion bid for a stake in Clearwire, which Sprint had earlier announced its intention to acquire.

Ergen said that Dish’s offer for Clearwire is not illusory, “but the deck is stacked against us,” he acknowledged. However, he insisted, his offer is better for shareholders.

“Ideally, we’d compete against the AT&Ts and Verizons,” he said. “To do that, we’d need more spectrum.”

The cable and phone companies are good at delivering video, voice and data inside the home, and the wireless companies do good outside the home. Ergen said his goal is to do well with both. “That’s why we think we need wireless spectrum.”

Ergen said the company’s intention has never been to sell the spectrum, but the Federal Communications Commission has created an opportunity to get billions if it chose to do so. “We don’t want to sell the spectrum.”

As for what it would do if it can’t buy Clearwire, Ergen said there is a Plan B, but declined to get specific.

Earlier in the interview, Ergen said his company needs to own wireless to deliver television outside the home.

“We want to compete against both the cable guys and the wireless guys, and we want to do it inside the house and outside the house, and that’s why we think we need wireless spectrum,” Ergen said. “We’d like to own a wireless network so we can give you a quality of service.”

The company said it didn’t know how to get into the wireless business, but felt like it needed to do it to serve its customers outside the home.

[ See post to watch video ]

Verizon, AT&T in $1.9 Billion Deal to Swap Some Spectrum

Ina Fried — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:36:17 +0000

Verizon Wireless has announced a bunch of spectrum-swap deals, including an agreement with AT&T that will see Ma Bell forking over $1.9 billion in cash.

In that deal, AT&T is getting 39 lower 700 MHz B Block licenses from Verizon, along with the cash, In addition, AT&T is transferring some spectrum in the AWS band in several western U.S. markets including Los Angeles, Phoenix, Fresno and Portland, Oregon.

Verizon is getting $189 million by selling 700MHz licenses in North Carolina to Grain Management, a Florida-based private equity firm. Verizon will also lease an AWS license for Dallas that Grain is acquiring from AT&T.

And Verizon said it will lease 700 MHz spectrum to 20 rural operators as part of its effort “to jumpstart the delivery of 4G LTE in rural areas.”

The Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice will have to give the okay for the deals to be finalized.

Verizon had said it would sell some of its 700 MHz holdings assuming it was allowed to acquire spectrum from a coalition of cable companies.

Google Creating Wireless Network, but for What?

Amir Efrati and Anton Troianovski — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:45:30 +0000

Google is trying to create an experimental wireless network covering its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, a move that some analysts say could portend the creation of dense and superfast Google wireless networks in other locations that would allow people to connect to the Web using their mobile devices.

First, the facts: Google last week submitted an application to the Federal Communications Commission, asking for an experimental license to create an “experimental radio service” with a two-mile radius covering its headquarters.

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More Wi-Fi Spectrum on the Way, Says Genachowski

John Paczkowski — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 22:34:01 +0000

iStockphoto | italianestro

The Federal Communications Commission plans to free up significant additional wireless spectrum in the hopes of averting the dreaded “spectrum crunch” that some fear will degrade Wi-Fi performance across the United States.

Speaking at International CES this week, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said the agency next month hopes to allocate about 195 megahertz of unlicensed wireless spectrum in the 5 gigahertz band to help increase Wi-Fi speeds and temper congestion in high-usage areas. “We’ve got to get what we can out of every megahertz of spectrum and seize these opportunities,” Genachowski said.

Portions of the spectrum the FCC is looking at are currently being used by the U.S. Department of Defense and other government agencies, so there may be a few issues to overcome before it’s released. As Genachowski himself conceded, the plan “will require significant collaboration with other federal agencies.” But if it’s pushed through, it could increase available Wi-Fi capacity by about 35 percent.

That’s a significant increase. And while it might not address the coming mobile spectrum crunch entirely, it could do much to solve capacity issues and slower download speeds where Wi-Fi usage is high. After all, it’s the largest block of unlicensed spectrum to be made available for Wi-Fi expansion since 2003.

“As this spectrum comes online, we expect it to relieve congested Wi-Fi networks at major hubs like convention centers and airports,” Genachowski said. “It will also help in homes as tablets and smartphones proliferate and video use rises.”

In Clearwire Gambit, Spectrum Is the Prize

Anton Troianovski, Shalini Ramachandran and Anupreeta Das — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:30:30 +0000

Charlie Ergen, chairman of Dish Network Corp., is in a familiar position: He can win even by losing.

Mr. Ergen’s attempt to snatch wireless provider Clearwire Corp. out of the hands of its current merger partner, Sprint Nextel Corp., is just his latest move in a long chess match. The endgame: to get access to the spectrum and network assets needed to deliver wireless service and even video over the air.

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Dish Networks Wins a $9 Billion Spectrum Prize

Anton Troianovski, Shalini Ramachandran and Sarah Portlock — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 01:50:01 +0000

For more than a decade, telecom moguls and hedge fund titans have wrangled with regulators in a bid to wring billions of dollars out of thin air. This week, the government crowned a winner.

The Federal Communications Commission late Tuesday said Dish Network Corp., led by satellite-TV pioneer Charlie Ergen, would be able to use a slice of the airwaves designated for satellite-phone transmissions to instead offer much more lucrative cellphone service.

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Mobile Device Makers to Congress: We Want the Airwaves, Baby

John Paczkowski — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:52:35 +0000

A coalition of tech companies — Apple, Samsung and Nokia among them — is urging Congress to make additional wireless spectrum available for mobile data.

In a letter to key lawmakers this week, the High Tech Spectrum Coalition (HTSC) — which includes Apple, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, Intel, Nokia, Qualcomm, RIM and Samsung — asked that Congress consider expanding an upcoming spectrum auction to include bands used by federal agencies.

“Now is the time to ensure the incentive auctions are as robust and successful as possible at liberating spectrum,” the HTSC wrote. “We should also turn our collective attention on ways to reap the economic benefits of underutilized federal spectrum assets.”

The HTSC’s point: Demand for mobile data is growing far too quickly for anyone to be sitting on under-utilized or unused spectrum. And while new spectrum-efficient technologies might temper that demand a bit, they’re really not a long-term solution.

“As technology companies, we joined this debate because policymakers need to know that we cannot simply engineer our way out of this problem,” the HTSC wrote, adding that federal agencies need to be incentivized to “become more efficient, to share with one another, to vacate, or to lease their spectrum.”

Sprint in Talks to Buy Clearwire

Sharon Terlep and Anton Troianovski — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 18:40:37 +0000

Sprint Nextel Corp. is in talks to acquire the 49 percent of Clearwire Corp. it does not already own in a move to clear up a tangled ownership structure that has left Sprint unable to control the decisions of a key strategic partner, people familiar with the situation said Tuesday.

Sprint is also after its smaller partner’s spectrum rights.

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Yep, T-Mobile Will Eventually Offer the iPhone -- At Full Price

Mike Isaac — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 22:36:24 +0000

T-Mobile announced Thursday that the company will begin to offer the iPhone to its customers in 2013, finally securing the massively popular smartphone deal after years of being the only one of the big four U.S. carriers not to offer the device.

“What was missing? It’s very clear,” said John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile U.S.A., at a conference on Thursday. “A certain number of customers wouldn’t come to the store if we didn’t have the iPhone. … We worked very hard for a deal that makes sense for us.”

Legere didn’t nail down an exact date, instead saying the device will be offered to customers at some point next year.

Part of the problem T-Mobile has had in getting the deal done was in the carrier’s very infrastructure. The company uses a different spectrum band for its high-speed data network, which would have required Apple to do more heavy lifting to accomodate T-Mobile’s network.

Instead, T-Mobile has made strides in rejiggering its entire U.S. network, which will make it better suited to host the iPhone. Cellular tower by cellular tower, T-Mobile has been systematically upgrading their network to work with the iPhone’s spectrum.

As recently as September, T-Mobile made a push to onboard owners of unlocked iPhones to the company’s network, pairing the phones with a recently announced “Unlimited” data plan.

T-Mobile also plans to make major changes in its pricing structure in 2013, eliminating the subsidy model long used in the cellular industry. So instead of getting a $400 price cut on your handset when buying the phone, T-Mobile asks that you pay the full price. That’s not exactly cheap — often upwards of $400 to $600 for high-end devices — but it’s cheaper than the current industry standard, which lets you buy the subsidized phone up front, but locks you into a contract with higher monthly rates.

Legere didn’t get into the nitty-gritty on how the company would get around offering unsubsidized phones come 2013, a challenge considering customers often don’t recognize the value in paying more money up front for cheaper rates over the long term.

But he did drop a few hints. “You may pay $99 for the most iconic device in the world,” Legere said, likely alluding to Apple’s iPhone, “and then you may [pay] $15 to $20 a month” thereafter with your monthly bill. So in essence, it’s a sort of layaway program, eventually paying the full cost of the hardware but over time rather than all at once.

T-Mobile already offers this kind of pricing with its current “value plans” — one of two types of plans it offers to contract customers.

Leap Wireless Posts 3Q Profit on Large Gain

Saabira Chaudhuri and Anna Prior — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 23:23:10 +0000

Leap Wireless International Inc. swung to a third-quarter profit as the pay-as-you-go mobile operator recorded a large gain resulting from an exchange of spectrum licenses.

Leap has reported growing revenue in recent quarters but, until the latest results, the company hadn’t posted a quarterly profit since 2007, after its lower-income customer base was hit particularly hard by the recession.

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Sprint Buys Spectrum From U.S. Cellular

Melodie Warner — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:18:07 +0000

Sprint Nextel Corp. Wednesday said it agreed to acquire spectrum and business operations in parts of five states from U.S. Cellular Corp. for about $480 million, in a deal that will significantly increase the company’s network capacity.

Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse said the deal includes several important Midwest markets such as Chicago and St. Louis. The transaction involves 585,000 U.S. Cellular customers in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Ohio.

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FCC Approves AT&T's Spectrum Plan

Amy Schatz — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 18:59:44 +0000

Federal regulators signed off Wednesday on a plan that would resolve longstanding interference issues between AT&T Inc. and Sirius XM Radio Inc. and allow the wireless giant to expand its high-speed LTE network.

The Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved a technical plan Wednesday that would allow AT&T to use some spectrum it acquired years ago but was unable to use because of concerns it would knock out Sirius’s satellite radio service. The plan would allow AT&T to use some of the so-called WCS spectrum licenses.

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Leap Wireless Left Out of the Telecom Consolidation, For Now

Thomas Gryta — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 21:33:46 +0000

In the recent flurry of deal activity in the U.S. wireless industry, Leap Wireless has been left hanging–for now.

With potential acquirers preoccupied with other deals, any move involving Leap isn’t expected soon. But the pay-as-you-go wireless provider, which offers service under the Cricket brand, is expected to sell eventually because — in an industry that increasingly relies on size and scale — the company will find it harder to compete against larger competitors and its spectrum will become more attractive to possible buyers.

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Two Networks, One Company: T-Mobile Explains Why Its MetroPCS Deal Can Work

Ina Fried — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 16:00:26 +0000

When T-Mobile announced its deal this week to acquire MetroPCS, one of the first concerns raised by outsiders was the fact that today the two companies use a different type of network technology.

T-Mobile’s network has evolved from the type of system used by AT&T while MetroPCS has historically relied on a CDMA network similar to those used by Verizon and Sprint.

That has some analysts and investors worried that the combined company could face the kind of hurdles that Sprint saw in the wake of its Nextel deal — a combination that, years later, still forces the company to operate two incompatible networks.

But T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray says the key is that both companies have been moving toward a similar next-generation LTE network. Indeed, Ray says the combined spectrum will allow the company to offer a much stronger network in key cities than the two carriers ever could have done solo.

The key, he said, is that T-Mobile plans to quickly migrate MetroPCS customers to phones that use T-Mobile’s network.

“This isn’t about integrating these two networks,” he said in an interview Friday. “It’s about moving MetroPCS over to a bigger and stronger converged network.”

With Nextel, Sprint acquired a set of customers dependent on features that it couldn’t match on its own network. But Ray says there is no feature MetroPCS customers are used to that T-Mobile can’t immediately match on its own network.

From the day the merger takes effect, T-Mobile plans to start selling phones that use the MetroPCS brand but run on its network technology, with a goal to fully migrate users to its network within a couple of years, eventually decommissioning the CDMA network to free up more spectrum for LTE.

Ray said the hardest part will be moving MetroPCS customers over to T-Mobile’s network as quickly as possible.

The technology pieces are relatively straightforward here,” Ray said. “I don’t see any big technology barriers we need to knock down.”

That said, T-Mobile is already involved in a pretty big technological undertaking as it looks to turn on its LTE network by the second half of next year. It’s part of a $4 billion network modernization effort that it kicked off this year after its failed bid to sell itself to AT&T.

MetroPCS is actually somewhat ahead on this front, having already launched LTE along with a number of low-cost LTE devices. The company is also ahead of some major carriers in testing delivering voice in addition to data over the newer network.

T-Mobile, meanwhile is the last of the four major carriers to move to LTE, following Verizon, AT&T and Sprint, which is just now expanding its LTE network.

Even before it has LTE, T-Mobile is working to offer up more iPhone-compatible HSPA+ service in hopes of attracting existing iPhone owners to bring their device onto its network. Currently T-Mobile USA doesn’t sell an iPhone and yet has 1 million or so customers, even though they are limited to very slow 2G data speeds.

“There’s a lot of work ahead,” Ray agreed, but said much of it has more to do with logistics and execution than major technology risk.

[Shutterstock/GTS]

Confirmed: T-Mobile USA, MetroPCS to Combine in Cash and Stock Deal

Ina Fried — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 12:56:39 +0000

T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom said Wednesday that it has reached a deal to combine its U.S. wireless operations with MetroPCS.

Under the terms of the deal, MetroPCS shareholders will get $1.5 billion in cash and a 26 percent stake in the combined company, while Deutsche Telekom will own the remaining 74 percent.

The deal requires regulatory approval as well as a nod from MetroPCS shareholders, and is expected to close in the first half of 2013.

“We are committed to creating a sustainable and financially viable national challenger in the U.S., and we believe this combination helps us deliver on that commitment,” Deutsche Telekom CEO René Obermann said in a statement.

Although the deal would help strengthen T-Mobile’s business, the combined company will still lag far behind market leaders AT&T and Verizon Wireless in terms of spectrum holdings and number of subscribers.

Additionally, the two companies have considerably different business strategies and underlying technologies, issues that could complicate integration.

T-Mobile discussed the deal further on a conference call. Here’s a recap of that call..

Deutsche Telekom, MetroPCS Boards Back T-Mobile Deal

Anton Troianovski and Archibald Preuschat — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 12:34:08 +0000

The boards of Deutsche Telekom AG and MetroPCS Communications Inc. have approved a deal to merge MetroPCS with the German operator’s U.S. subsidiary, T-Mobile USA, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday, a deal that would give the fourth-largest U.S. wireless carrier more scale as it tries to compete with the industry’s leaders.

The move further consolidates the U.S. wireless industry, but in a way that is likely to be well received by regulators, who last year shot down T-Mobile’s $39 billion deal to be acquired by AT&T Inc. to avoid reducing the ranks of national carriers from four to three.

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Leap Wireless Finalizes $120 Million Spectrum Sale to Verizon

Ina Fried — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 20:39:25 +0000

Prepaid carrier Leap Wireless, which sells under the Cricket brand, said on Tuesday it had completed a deal to sell $120 million worth of airwave rights to Verizon Wireless. The deal covers spectrum in various U.S. cities and also involves Leap gaining some new frequencies in Chicago.