800 MHz Licenses Would Get New Life Under T-Mobile/Grain Proposal
T-Mobile wants to sell hundreds of 800 MHz licenses to Grain Management, partially in exchange for 600 MHz spectrum. Grain, in turn, plans to work with utilities and others to deploy services on the 800 MHz spectrum.
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“This Transaction offers a unique, market-based opportunity to repurpose low-band radio spectrum to address critical utility, rural and regional wireless operator, and other enterprise needs,” said the companies' recent filing in the FCC’s universal licensing system. “The key spectrum assets at issue -- the 800 MHz enhanced specialized mobile radio licenses currently held by T-Mobile -- have played an important role in commercial mobile radio service networks for over four decades.” But due to “technological and commercial reasons, the spectrum has been decreasingly relied upon as a foundational nationwide band.”
The companies noted that the spectrum is “ideal for a broad range of utility and critical infrastructure industry use cases, with its superior long-range propagation characteristics and highly effective building penetration.” The band is also useful to rural and regional wireless carriers seeking to increase their low-band holdings, they said.
T-Mobile and Grain urged the FCC to address the issue through waivers. “Instead of embarking on a lengthy and unwieldy regulatory process to effectuate a spectrum conversion, Grain and T-Mobile have developed an innovative and market-driven band repurposing plan that leverages the benefits of a common nationwide 800 MHz band for utilities and other enterprises,” they said: “By enabling utilities to access the well-propagating spectrum necessary to modernize the power grid, grant of the waivers by the Commission would help ensure that critical infrastructure remains safe, secure, and effective.”
Grain has already started working with utilities and wireless providers “to deploy the 800 MHz Licenses as quickly as possible to address a rapidly growing need for spectrum capacity among utilities and other critical infrastructure providers,” the filing said.
In an investor note Wednesday highlighting the deal, New Street said: “Financial terms of the transaction haven’t been disclosed, though it seems partial consideration will be provided by selling Grain’s 600 MHz licenses to T-Mobile.”