The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that AT&T and T-Mobile had filed a request with the FCC to transfer spectrum from AT&T to T-Mobile. Per the terms of an agreement between the two companies, if the proposed acquisition by AT&T were to fail, T-Mobile would be given AWS spectrum in 128 markets, including 12 of the top 20 in the US. No word from the FCC yet on the request.
GigaOM Tuesday posted a map of the CMAs that AT&T is proposing to divest. The map shows that AT&T will hand over all the AWS holdings in Boston; San Francisco/Oakland; Washington, D.C.; Houston; Baltimore; Atlanta; San Diego; Seattle; Kansas City, Mo.; San Jose, Calif.; San Antonio; and Salt Lake City. AT&T will be launching its LTE network on both the 700MHz and AWS spectrum, but only gave up spectrum in markets where it had enough 700MHz holdings to get a network off the ground. However, in some of the cities, this will be half the size of Verizon’s current LTE network.
T-Mobile will have between 60 and 80MHz combined in PCS and AWS spectrum in some markets, making for quick and efficient expansion of its HSPA+ 42Mbps network.
Source: Wall Street Journal via Engadget and GigaOM
Mickey Papillon
Joey Koppes
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