T-Mobile, Comcast, Dish and US Cellular among big winners in FCC broadcast airwaves auction

[Shawn Knight]

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday revealed that Comcast, Dish Network, US Cellular and T-Mobile were among the top spenders in the most recent spectrum auction.

The airwaves auction, which allowed broadcasters to repurpose their airwaves for mobile use, generated $19.8 billion in gross revenue for 70 MHz of spectrum. Of the 175 broadcasters that participated, the FCC said 30 stations will receive money in exchange for moving to a lower channel while 133 others will utilize channel-sharing agreements to remain on air.

T-Mobile said it walked away with 31 MHz of spectrum – 45 percent of the total – that’s spread across the US and Puerto Rico, quadrupling its low-band holdings. The carrier said the spectrum, which it’ll start using later this year, cost $7.99 billion and will allow them to expand their LTE network to new areas of the country.

In total, 50 wireless carriers won spectrum in the auction.

The FCC on Thursday also announced new channel assignments (and the dates those assignments will go into effect) for 957 non-winning stations that must change channels to clear the airwaves for wireless use. The first group of stations required to move channels must do so by November 30, 2018.

The full list of winners can be found in Appendix B of the Public Notice (PDF).

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https://www.techspot.com/news/68942-t-mobile-comcast-dish-us-cellular-among-big.html

 

[MoeJoe]

Winning !

 

[psycros]

Ironic that the digital TV changeover did the least good for those who relied on OTA the most, I.e. people in rural areas where cable isn't available. Satellite is no solution because country folk don't like being locked into a contract..plus its usually even costlier than cable, has very limited Internet, etc. That all being said, I would do backflips to have T-Mo or US Cellular where I live. Being held hostage to the worst American wireless provider sucks.

 

[DelJo63]

"T-Mobile said it walked away with 31 MHz of spectrum – 45 percent of the total – that’s spread across the US and Puerto Rico, quadrupling its low-band holdings. The carrier said the spectrum, which it’ll start using later this year, cost $7.99 billion and will allow them to expand their LTE network to new areas of the country."

31MHz is just above the 27MHz of the U.S. Citizen's Band and the 27Mhz is in the 9meter band. Contrast that to other frequencies (like our 2.4 GHz routers) and you can see it is VERY low Fq indeed. However, low Fq leads to much better long distance reception. Put one cell tower on the North side of the island and another on the South (there's an E-W mountain range) and these low Fq bands become very effective.

This table https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM_frequency_bands
shows Fq bands used by current cell services - - notice - - there's NOTHING in the 31MHz area - - the lowest today is
T-GSM-380 380 380.2 – 389.8 390.2 – 399.8

 

[danmanbeercan]

"T-Mobile said it walked away with 31 MHz of spectrum – 45 percent of the total – that’s spread across the US and Puerto Rico, quadrupling its low-band holdings. The carrier said the spectrum, which it’ll start using later this year, cost $7.99 billion and will allow them to expand their LTE network to new areas of the country."

31MHz is just above the 27MHz of the U.S. Citizen's Band and the 27Mhz is in the 9meter band. Contrast that to other frequencies (like our 2.4 GHz routers) and you can see it is VERY low Fq indeed. However, low Fq leads to much better long distance reception. Put one cell tower on the North side of the island and another on the South (there's an E-W mountain range) and these low Fq bands become very effective.

This table https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM_frequency_bands
shows Fq bands used by current cell services - - notice - - there's NOTHING in the 31MHz area - - the lowest today is
T-GSM-380 380 380.2 – 389.8 390.2 – 399.8

Sorry bud, I think you are a bit off here. They walked away with owning 31MHz of additional bandwidth, they dont own the 31MHz frequency.

http://www.tmonews.com/2017/04/fcc-results-600mhz-auction-t-mobile-wins-most/

Looks like they bought mostly in the 600-700MHz, which is low and does have its advantages of longer range. T-Mobile is slowly but surely securing their foothold as the third largest Cellular Carrier.