If AT&T Mobility is interested in the 700 MHz spectrum assets Verizon Wireless is looking to offload, it’s keeping that interest close to the vest.
Speaking during its quarterly conference call, AT&T Mobility’s CEO Ralph de la Vega noted the carrier would not speculate on those spectrum assets, but did reiterate claims that it did prefer “low-band spectrum.”
Verizon Wireless announced last week plans to sell off some of its 700 MHz spectrum holdings if the government approves pending transactions to acquire 1.7/2.1 GHz spectrum. The A- and B-Block licenses the carrier said it would be willing to sell are somewhat spectrally apart from the C-Block spectrum the carrier is currently using for its LTE service. However, those licenses are close to AT&T Mobility’s 700 MHz bands.
“That is our preferred option,” de la Vega explained. And we did get low-band spectrum with the Qualcomm purchase, which is something that we’re looking to put into play with our LTE aggregation capability.”
Those LTE aggregation capabilities are expected to come with the move to LTE-Advanced technology and will allow carriers to combine spectrum assets from across the board in order to provide wider channels to handle higher network speeds. AT&T Mobility’s current LTE deployment relies on its lower B-Band 700 MHz licenses. The carrier late last year picked up spectrum licenses in the D- and E-Block that included between 6 and 12 megahertz of spectrum from Qualcomm covering 300 million potential customers for nearly $2 billion. It also had previously acquired 700 MHz spectrum licenses that included 12 megahertz of spectrum from Aloha Partners in 2008 for $2.5 billion.
De la Vega also noted that the carrier has closed on a number of smaller spectrum acquisitions already this year to bolster its portfolio.
“I think I mentioned several times in the call that I think this mobile Internet is going to continue to drive data growth,” de la Vega added. “And so we’re going to continue to look for the FCC and others to bring spectrum to market so that we can address the longer-term needs that we have, and quite frankly, that the industry has.”
AT&T had previously attempted to reinforce its spectrum capacity by acquiring rival T-Mobile USA last year, in a deal that was eventually shot down by regulators and nixed by AT&T.
AT&T Mobility said its LTE network currently covers 35 markets and that it was on track to double current coverage by year end and be “largely complete” by the end of 2013. Verizon Wireless noted last week that it was set to expand its current LTE network to 260 million pops covered by the end of this year and mirror its existing CDMA footprint by the end of 2013.
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