dslreports logo
 story category
Verizon, T-Mobile to Swap Spectrum if Cable Deal Approved
Boosting T-Mobile Holdings in 15 of top 25 Markets
Should Verizon's massive $3.5 billion co-marketing and spectrum deal with the cable industry go through, the company says they've struck a deal with T-Mobile that would give T-Mobile additional spectrum in 15 of the top 25 U.S. markets including Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Seattle and Detroit. The deal is a fairly obvious bit of regulatory bait aimed at easing government and consumer advocate concerns that Verizon's cable partership could have an anti-competitive impact on numerous wireless and wireline companies. Verizon had previously announced they'll hold a spectrum sale should the deal be approved, with most of that spectrum most likely falling into the hands of AT&T. T-Mobile had previously opposed Verizon's cable industry deal, but apparently the new spectrum has them singing a different tune.
view:
topics flat nest 
BosstonesOwn
join:2002-12-15
Wakefield, MA

BosstonesOwn

Member

Come on

Stop Letting them get away with this crap.

They dangle a carrot from a stick in front of a rabbit and expect the rabbit not to chase it ? Really ?

Does no one in this government stand up for what is right for the people that "elect" them any more ? This should be go down faster then Al Roker eating sushi ! These back room deals between ceos with "publicly owned" items need to be stopped by some one who has the nerve to stand up to them.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

1 recommendation

88615298 (banned)

Member

Re: Come on

said by BosstonesOwn:

Stop Letting them get away with this crap.

They dangle a carrot from a stick in front of a rabbit and expect the rabbit not to chase it ? Really ?

Does no one in this government stand up for what is right for the people that "elect" them any more ? This should be go down faster then Al Roker eating sushi ! These back room deals between ceos with "publicly owned" items need to be stopped by some one who has the nerve to stand up to them.

What is your issue? So cable companies should just continue to squat on this spectrum. Who does that serve?
BosstonesOwn
join:2002-12-15
Wakefield, MA

BosstonesOwn

Member

Re: Come on

no ! they don't use it they lose it ! cycle it back in so others can get it. These are the peoples properties. Not the corporations, they seem to think it's ok for them to rape pillage and plunder the us tax payer at every turn.
ArizonaSteve
join:2004-01-31
Apache Junction, AZ

ArizonaSteve

Member

4G Maybe?

Does more spectrum for T-Mobile mean they can upgrade from Edge and we might actually get 4G in the Phoenix area?

whfsdude
Premium Member
join:2003-04-05
Washington, DC

whfsdude

Premium Member

Re: 4G Maybe?

said by ArizonaSteve:

Does more spectrum for T-Mobile mean they can upgrade from Edge and we might actually get 4G in the Phoenix area?

Phoenix proper already has '4G', and it has for awhile. You'll likely see 3G in 1900mhz in those edge only exurbs. Assuming you have a phone that can do 3g over 1900mhz.
ArizonaSteve
join:2004-01-31
Apache Junction, AZ

ArizonaSteve

Member

Re: 4G Maybe?

whfsdude you are wrong and since you are in DC what do you know?
Phoenix does not have "4G". In the downtown area there is a weak signal the phone says is 4G but it's only 3Mb so I don't know what that is. Even that is not available everywhere, there's no coverage in Scottsdale.
sparky007
join:2011-08-25
Phoenix, AZ

sparky007

Member

Re: 4G Maybe?

I've gotten 8 Meg download using T-mobile in the Pheonix area. 101 and 32 St. The question you need to ask around busy cell towers is how many people are downloading at the same time.

djdanska
Rudie32
Premium Member
join:2001-04-21
San Diego, CA

djdanska to ArizonaSteve

Premium Member

to ArizonaSteve
It means it gives them more room to get LTE in the aws spectrum while keeping some HSPA+ in aws and rest of HSPA+ in PCS.
wirelessdog
join:2008-07-15
Queen Anne, MD

wirelessdog to ArizonaSteve

Member

to ArizonaSteve
Apparently, contrary to TMO's advertising, they are either severely crippling prepaid 4G or not making it available on a prepaid basis. ArizonaSteve, according to his review, has been told by FIVE TMO stores he needs a contract service but he continues to make comments about their not having 4G yet he refuses to even try a 4G contract phone.

djdanska
Rudie32
Premium Member
join:2001-04-21
San Diego, CA

djdanska

Premium Member

Re: 4G Maybe?

they have prepaid 4g phones, they are the same phones as postpaid. different prices for different plans. he most likely doesn't want to pay.
wirelessdog
join:2008-07-15
Queen Anne, MD

wirelessdog to ArizonaSteve

Member

to ArizonaSteve
Ahh makes sense. Does prepaid TMO roam? If so, to what other carriers?

djdanska
Rudie32
Premium Member
join:2001-04-21
San Diego, CA

djdanska

Premium Member

Re: 4G Maybe?

voice? yes. mostly safe as postpaid. data? nope. Just mms usually.

hjdiet8
join:2004-02-12
Bethlehem, PA

hjdiet8

Member

closings

and T-mobile just shut down 7 call centers nationwide...
SauceMaster
join:2004-08-01
Kokomo, IN

SauceMaster

Member

Re: closings

Oh, and Verizon and AT&T has never shut any call centers down.. apparently. /end sarcastic comments !!

beans
@108.16.65.x

beans to hjdiet8

Anon

to hjdiet8
said by hjdiet8:

and T-mobile just shut down 7 call centers nationwide...

And I thought the tech industry was supposed to be booming. Isn't that why people are going to school for is either nursing or tech so they have a job when they get out?

O well, maybe I should reevaluate my college major, looks like whatever major that is going to be taken is still going to have you in the unemployment line.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Re: closings

Last I checked, you didn't need to go to college to be a call center worker, T-Mobile or anyone else. Calling those jobs tech jobs would be like calling the guy who stands around in a blue Best Buy shirt near the packaged software (what little of it that there is anymore) a programmer. Not the same thing at all.

Then again, I might be biased. You can't not call my job a tech job
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

still anti-consumer..

offloading spetrum to tmobile does not make tmobile prices any cheaper.. or quality any better

expect the wireless ad compared to this one..

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· h325bH7Y
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned)

Member

Re: still anti-consumer..

said by tmc8080:

offloading spetrum to tmobile does not make tmobile prices any cheaper.. or quality any better

How is cable squatting on this spectrum pro-consumer?
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

Re: still anti-consumer..

Verizon and AT&T both squat on much more spectrum holdings than any cable company.. however, if equitable distribution was the important factor of being pro consumer.. why wouldn't t-mobile have bought the spectrum rather than 3-way swap with Verizon?

Verizon seems to have a better sense of which frequencies are valuable assets to have in each market. You'd probably never see them strike a deal like lightsquared got caught with (something paid millions for but can't use).

I'm FOR smaller companies BUILDING on their networks that already exist, but by very nature of size and capitalization can't or won't deploy a wider wireless footprint. Wireless (cellular)licenses aren't charged for by the square mile in the cellco wireless field, generally they encompass large state or multi-state wide geogrpahies.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

1 recommendation

iansltx to tmc8080

Member

to tmc8080
Okay, so what's your suggestion?

I don't often agree with BF69, but in this case I've got to say that you aren't going to se a fifth national wireless carrier in the US. Leap/MetroPCS are regional, as are companies like C-Spire, US Cellular and the new Alltel (ATN-owned). Each of these companies have a fair amount of financial resources, but not enough to deploy a nationwide wireless network, even if they had the spectrum to do so.

T-Mobile, on the other hand, can do the whole nationwide wireless carrier thing, though in many cases they drop from 4G to 2G very quickly once you exit a large or medium-sized city. But where they have deployed HSPA+ or better, it works really well. Giving them more spectrum will allow them to deploy LTE in more places, which puts more competitive pressure on the remaining three nationwide providers to up coverage, lower prices or otherwise provide more value to the consumer.

From what I've seen, T-Mobile is more likely to offer a low-priced plan than anyone (including Sprint, though Sprint still has unlimited data, without throttling, on smartphones). This spectrum swap should allow them to continue in that vein, for those whom they cover.

Sure, it would be cool if Sprint got AWS spectrum, but in most areas they have a solid 54MHz of spectrum to work with once the decommission iDEN, something that T-Mobile doesn't have, depending on the area. Sprint also has all that Clearwire spectrum for when they need to augment capacity in a high-traffic area...T-Mobile has, uh, WiFi? Sprint also doesn't own any AWS spectrum at the moment, so it would be a stretch to think that they would just buy up SpectrumCo assets and start building out a network on that entirely new band at this point.

So yeah, let Verizon swap with T-Mobile, let T-Mobile swap with C-Spire, let Verizon buy SpectrumCo and Cox spectrum, let them spin off non-upper-C 700 licenses to AT&T, US Cellular and whoever else wants them, and throw in a clause that mandates LTE roaming on AWS (and eventually PCS) since it's technically trivial to make that happen. Don't hand-wring and keep the deal from going through just because it shuffles spectrum over to companies that will actually do something with it.
sparc
join:2006-05-06

sparc

Member

T-mobile is only on their side...

T-mobile is just as evil as Verizon and AT&T. They use their smaller size as leverage so that they can pick up some giveaway deals.

All it takes is money for T-mobile to change their tune. They aren't on the consumers side ever.

ArrayList
DevOps
Premium Member
join:2005-03-19
Mullica Hill, NJ

ArrayList

Premium Member

Re: T-mobile is only on their side...

I don't know why this has to be said.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

BiggA

Premium Member

Smarter

Verizon is a lot smarter at this than AT&T was.

I don't care too much about T-Mo, but this whole deal will benefit the whole industry, as it will get T-Mo more spectrum to not build out on, it will solidify Verizon's spectrum position, allow it to dump it's useless spectrum that it can't use with the Upper C spectrum it already uses, and it will allow AT&T to gobble up most or all of that lower 700 spectrum that they badly need.