Sprint, T-Mobile Say Backhaul Best, Safest Use of TV White Spaces
Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile Thursday jointly backed a proposal that TV white spaces spectrum be auctioned or otherwise licensed for fixed use, addressing their growing backhaul needs. The support of the two, the largest non-Bell affiliated wireless carriers in the U.S., adds a wrinkle to the debate as the FCC moves forward with a new round of testing of mobile devices designed to use the spectrum to access the Internet. The filing puts the two in direct opposition to Microsoft, Dell and other major high-tech players on the issue.
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“Because of their superior propagation characteristics, the TV bands are well suited for the delivery of lower-cost and reliable wireless backhaul services,” the carriers said in an FCC filing. The filing builds on a white paper submitted to the FCC last year by the Rural Telecommunications Group and FiberTower (CD Oct 4 p6). Sources have said for several months T-Mobile and Sprint were likely to endorse that proposal.
Sprint and Nextel have historically cited access to competitively priced backhaul as one of their greatest impediments in competing with AT&T and Verizon Wireless. “As the commission well knows, backhaul is an essential input in the operations of wireless carriers such as Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile that provide voice and data services,” they said: “Because backhaul comprises a significant cost for wireless carriers, and incumbent local exchange carriers’ special access charges are exorbitant, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile must find more affordable alternatives to the ILECs’ special access offerings.”
The carriers argue that opening the white spaces for backhaul could fill at least part of their growing need for backhaul as they roll out advanced services. “The amount of spectrum in the lower bands that is realistically available for the provision of wireless backhaul services has declined dramatically over the years,” they said. “As wireless carriers expand the deployment of their 3G and 4G wireless networks, the need for reliable and cost-effective backhaul will increase.” Licensed use also poses less risk of harmful interference to TV broadcasts than unlicensed use by portable devices, the carriers said.
“We have been looking at these bands for a while,” Richard Engelman, director of government affairs at Sprint Nextel, told us. “This is one where we had done some thinking and some analysis, and had some discussions with RTG and FiberTower and T-Mobile, and we just felt like the time to jump in and support the proposal was now.” Engelman said Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and the other parties plan to further “flesh out” proposed technical and service rules for use of the spectrum and make additional filings at the FCC.
The FCC has auctioned other spectrum -- particularly in the broadband radio service and location and monitoring service bands -- in the white spaces around other incumbents, Engelman said. “The person that buys the spectrum knows that they have to protect those incumbents and they take that into account in their bidding strategy and the amount they're willing to pay,” he said. The FCC also could license use of the spectrum without an auction through a spectrum fee approach similar to the way microwave licenses are offered by the commission today, he said.