FCC to release more spectrum to carriers by 2015

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, speaking at the University of Pennsylvania, told the audience how the FCC plans on handing out another 300MHz in spectrum to high-speed carriers by 2015. Much of the spectrum to be offered will be in the AWS band where some of AT&T's LTE signal resides and where some of T-Mobile's HSPA+ service can be found.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski

Much of the AWS spectrum being auctioned off lies between 1755MHz and 1780MHz, and the winner will have to share the spectrum with current government users. T-Mobile has said that if it wins the spectrum, it will use it to hjelp build out a its new LTE pipeline, set to launch next year. Still, amassing enough spectrum is a key issue these days and you can be sure that MetroPCS' 14 markets with LTE, for example, is why the nation's fifth largest carrier is being so heavily pursued by T-Mobile and possibly by Sprint.

While 300MHz of additional spectrum might sound generous, the CTIA has asked Uncle Sam to release 800MHz of the stuff by 2015. And before the AWS block that T-Mobile is interested in is auctioned, the government looks to hold an AWS-2 H-Block auction. This is a chunk of spectrum that Sprint is looking at for its LTE pipeline. The government will use the money paid for the spectrum to cut the budget deficit and to fund a nationwide public safety network.

Dish Networks got some good news when the FCC Chairman said that he would lift restrictions that had prevented the cable television provider from using 40MHz of satellite spectrum to be used for a land based LTE network. But if the government does auction the H-Block spectrum that Sprint wants, the FCC will have to move up Dish Network's spectrum up by 5MHz. Dish opposes that because its current spectrum lines up perfectly with LTE standards.

The FCC is also looking at allowing the L-band, traditionally used for satellites, to be used for LTE service. This is the band that Light Squared hoped to use for its LTE service that never got off the ground because of interference with nearby GPS devices. Light Squared recently said that it had solved its problem and hopes to try again to offer the service.