The spectrum horse-trading continued this week ahead of planned license auctions, as AT&T and T-Mobile US filed forms to swap a number of PCS and AWS licenses.
The carriers said the proposed deals would allow for more efficient use of their respective spectrum licenses, as well as helps AT&T satisfy divestiture requirements tied to its recently closed acquisition of Leap Wireless. The more efficient use would come from the reduced need for guard bands between some licenses that are currently in place to prevent interference between services offered by both operators.
As noted in a T-Mobile US Reddit forum, the carriers made a filing with the Federal Communications Commission to swap the licenses across portions of 10 states, including Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Florida, California, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Louisiana and Kentucky. As part of AT&T’s divestitures in gaining approval of the Leap deal, the carrier is giving up spectrum covering parts of Texas and Nevada.
Both operators are aggressively attempting to consolidate their spectrum holdings in order to better support the rollout of LTE services. AT&T’s LTE network is currently based on its 700 MHz spectrum holdings, but the operators is looking to add support in the 1.7/2.1 GHz and 1.9 GHz spectrum bands for additional capacity. AT&T is also looking at deploying support in the 2.3 GHz band.
T-Mobile US has based its initial LTE rollout on its 1.7/2.1 GHz spectrum, with plans to begin adding 700 MHz licenses that it recently acquired from Verizon Wireless and re-farming its 1.9 GHz spectrum currently supporting the carrier’s 2G and 3G services.
Both operators are expected to participate in the upcoming auction of AWS-3 spectrum licenses in the 1.7/2.1 GHz band as well as next year’s scheduled 600 MHz incentive auction.
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