The federal government continues to loosen its grip on wireless spectrum to the benefit of the mobile industry, with the latest move coming from the Department of Defense, which said it would be willing to work on freeing up spectrum in the 1.7/2.1 GHz spectrum bands.
The DoD noted in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission that it would be able to free up spectrum in those bands without a significant loss to its capabilities. However, the DoD noted that it could cost up to $3.5 billion to move operations from those bands. Further muddying the waters is that the DoD has yet to set up a timetable for freeing up that spectrum, though the FCC has said it was looking at auctioning off spectrum in the 1.7/2.1 GHz band by early 2015.
The FCC is looking to pair spectrum from the DoD in the 1755 MHz to 1780 MHz band with currently freed up spectrum in the 2155 MHz to 2180 MHz band for a potential auction. The 2155-2180 MHz band had been at the center of potential interference issues and the topic of extensive negotiations for five years.
The 1.7/2.1 GHz band is increasingly being looked at by domestic operators to support LTE services, with Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility both looking at that band for adding capacity to their current LTE deployments, while T-Mobile US is relying heavily on that band for the bulk of its LTE coverage.
The FCC, along the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, is looking to fulfill President Obama’s mandate to allocate up to 500 megahertz of new spectrum to support commercial wireless services. In addition to the 1.7/2.1 GHz band, the FCC is setting up rules to auction off spectrum in the 600 MHz band that is currently being used by television broadcasters.
Bored? Why not follow me on Twitter?
