T-Mobile Purchases 10MHz Of AWS Spectrum From U.S. Cellular

T-Mobile announced on Friday that it is buying 10MHz of Advanced Wireless Service (AWS) from U.S. Cellular. The price that T-Mobile is paying for the spectrum is $308 million in cash. The purchased spectrum covers 32 million people in 29 markets and will allow T-Mobile to bring 4G LTE service to new markets, and expand the service in areas where the carrier already offers it in the Mississippi Valley region.

Some of the areas covered by the purchase include St. Louis; Nashville; Kansas City; Memphis; Lexington; Little Rock-North Little Rock; Birmingham; New Orleans; and Louisville. The deal still needs to receive certain regulatory approval from the FCC and the DOJ and is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

Samsung Galaxy S4 To Support Verizon's Upcoming LTE Expansion

The Samsung's Galaxy S4 will be able to support AWS on Verizon when it launches later this year. The phone will require a software update to activate support for the spectrum, which is being used to increase LTE coverage and speed in different areas. Verizon announced that devices with AWS support would ship by July likely before the network itself launches and it's certainly met that deadline.

However, Verizon has taken its time in rolling out the new spectrum. While the company has continued to purchase licenses, it only recently announced that it intends to have some of the AWS spectrum up and running by the end of this year. According to Bloomberg, that launch will begin in major cities, including New York, where network congestion has become a problem as more consumers adopt LTE.

T-Mobile And Verizon Ink Spectrum Deal

T-Mobile and Verizon have formally entered into agreement which will see the nation's largest wireless carrier licensing spectrum to the fourth largest. Following regulatory approval, T-Mobile will gain improved AWS spectrum in 218 markets, including 15 of the top 25 U.S. markets, covering around 60 million people. Verizon, for its part, will receive spectrum that covers another 22 million people and some cash as well.  While the application has been submitted to the FCC, it could be some time before anything happens in the consumer eye.

T-Mobile will gain spectrum covering 60 million people  notably in Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Detroit; Minneapolis; Seattle; Cleveland; Columbus, Ohio; Milwaukee; Charlotte, N.C.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Greensboro, N.C.; Memphis, Tenn.; and Rochester, N.Y. — in exchange for spectrum covering 22 million people and certain cash consideration. The agreement also includes exchanges in a number of markets in which the companies will swap licenses to create more contiguous blocks of spectrum and re-align spectrum in adjacent markets. These intra-market swaps will enhance T‑Mobile’s network performance and data throughput in key locations. This agreement is in addition to T-Mobile’s previously announced $4 billion 4G network evolution plan, which includes modernization of 37,000 cell sites, launching 4G HSPA+ services in the 1900 MHz band and deployment of LTE in 2013.

LTE And HSPA+ BlackBerry PlayBook Makes Their Way Through The FCC

• 
  

The BlackBerry PlayBook has been available for nearly a year now, but there's still no version of the tablet with a cellular broadband connection. That might not be the case for much longer, though, as an HSPA+ version and two LTE versions of the 7-inch tablet have been submitted for approval to the FCC. As usual with FCC filings, there aren't too many details, though we know that both tablets have Bluetooth, GPS, dual-band (802.11a/b/g/n) Wi-Fi, and NFC — a PlayBook first that we assume will be compatible with BlackBerry Tag. Additionally, one of the LTE versions will support the AWS and 700MHz LTE bands as well as HSPA+ on the 850MHz and 1900MHz UMTS bands, meaning it most probably will run on AT&T's network in the United States if ever released. The other LTE version has support for Verizon-friendly EV-DO and LTE Band 13. Lastly, the HSPA+ only version supports the 850MHz, AWS, and 1900MHz UMTS bands, so we'd expect this to be the international / T-Mobile variant of the tablet.

While the tablets aren't called PlayBooks in the filing, they do share the same length and width as the current PlayBook, so they can't be the previously-rumored 10-inch Black Forest tablet. It's worth mentioning that the tablets have been in the labs for well over four months — they were originally received on October 28th last year.

Verizon Partners With Comcast

Verizon Wireless acquired 122 AWS spectrum licenses late in 2011 from a JV of cable companies including Comcast, and the partnership between the two has quickly grown. Now, the two companies are ready to launch their new product bundle - wireless, cable-TV, landline, and residential Internet in Seattle and Portland, Oregon.

The marketing effort will continue and spread this year, and by 2013 it’s expected to cover major US markets. Verizon Wireless will promote Comcast’s Xfinity in its stores, while Comcast will in turn promote Big Red services on the phone and online.

But the most exciting aspect of the partnership - the new products that the two companies are developing will only show later on. Verizon and Comcast are working on bringing seamless streaming between wireless devices and cable TV.

In the last month, both Verizon and Comcast have been training call-center staff to take calls for the new products and bundles.

"Are we ambitious? Absolutely, we are ambitious," Catherine Avgiris, senior VP and general manager of communications at Comcast said.

Verizon to buy Cox's AWS spectrum for $315M

            

Cox Communications said it will sell 20 MHz of its AWS spectrum covering 28 million POPs to Verizon Wireless for $315 million.

The deal comes two weeks after Verizon agreed to pay $3.6 billion for the nationwide AWS spectrum licenses held by SpectrumCo, a joint venture of cable companies Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. Cox said the deal does not include its 700 MHz spectrum licenses, the company's Cox Wireless customer accounts or any other assets. However, Cox spokesman Todd Smith told FierceWireless the deal includes all of Cox's AWS spectrum licenses.

Additionally, just as in the SpectrumCo deal, Cox and Verizon Wireless will also become agents to sell each other's residential and commercial products and services through their respective sales channels. Over time, Cox said it may have the option to sell Verizon Wireless' services on a wholesale basis, something Comcast and Time Warner have said they will do. Cox also said it expects to enter into arrangements with the innovation technology joint venture formed by Verizon Wireless, Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House to better integrate wireline and wireless products and services.

The Cox-Verizon deal is subject to regulatory approval and while Smith declined to give a specific timeframe he said "we're obviously working hard to make it happen as soon as possible." A person familiar with the SpectrumCo-Verizon deal who asked to remain anonymous told FierceWireless earlier this month that the regulatory review for that deal is expected to take six to nine months.

Taken together with the SpectrumCo deal, the Cox AWS spectrum could give Verizon, the nation's largest carrier, an even greater spectrum advantage over its rivals if the deals approved. The SpectrumCo deal would give Verizon a total of around 110 MHz of nationwide spectrum. Verizon has said it plans to use AWS spectrum to supplement its 700 MHz spectrum for its LTE network, thereby providing additional capacity for LTE traffic. 

The deal also signals the unwinding of Cox's independent wireless position; in November, Cox said it would abandon its wireless service offering by the end of March, effectively killing a year-long experiment by the MSO to build its own wireless network and provide wireless as part of a quad-play bundle.

In 2006, Cox teamed with Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Sprint Nextel as the SpectrumCo joint venture to bid on AWS spectrum licenses during the FCC's Auction 66. (Sprint exited SpectrumCo in 2007.) SpectrumCo in 2006 spent $2.4 billion on licenses covering most of the populated areas of the United States. In November 2008, Cox exited SpectrumCo (according to this FCC filing) and took with it 31 AWS licenses in parts of California, Georgia, Oklahoma, the Southwest and elsewhere.

Is T-Mobile using 1900 band to test there 84Mbps HSPA+ deployment?

Ever since T-Mobile launched 3G service in 2008, it's used AWS exclusively — the 1,700MHz band auctioned by the FCC in the middle of the last decade — while keeping its legacy 2G services confined to the 1,900MHz PCS band. That might change, though, as the carrier looks to keep pushing on HSPA+ to deliver ever-higher 4G-like speeds in the absence of a clear LTE plan (and the absence of an AT&T acquisition). T-Mobile has already lead the way on deploying 21 and 42Mbps HSPA+, but the 3G roadmap doesn't end there: 84Mbps networks are a reality and the chipsets exist, it's just a question of securing the bandwidth to deploy it.

To that end, TmoNews noticed through HowardForums that unlocked iPhones connected to T-Mobile are picking up spots of 3G service in a few locations. What does that have to do with anything? The iPhone doesn't support AWS at all — the only band T-Mobile is known to be using for HSPA+ so far — which means that the carrier appears to be testing HSPA+ on its 1900 holdings, a prerequisite to deploying dual-carrier 84Mbps service. The site points out that most of T-Mobile's recent smartphones support 1,900MHz 3G, and this would explain why.

For owners of unlocked iPhones (and other unlocked devices that don't support AWS) on T-Mobile, this is potentially great news: in the long term, you might be able to move around the country and pick up a fair bit of 3G service. Meanwhile, it seems likely that we'll see the carrier deploy branded modems and handsets before too long that take advantage of 84Mbps HSPA+

Cox Communications abandons wireless service

Cox Communications said it will abandon its wireless service offering by next March, effectively killing a year-long experiment by the MSO to provide wireless as part of a quad-play bundle. The decision is another blow to cable companies' attempts to make inroads in the mobile market.

Cox said that starting today it will stop selling wireless service but continue to offer support. On March 30 Cox will discontinue the service. Earlier this year Cox abandoned plans to build its own wireless network and has been operating as an MVNO of Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) since November 2010.

To help ease the transition to other carriers, Cox said all of its wireless customers will receive a $150 credit on their bill for every line of wireless phone service disconnected. The company said customers can keep their wireless devices and that all early termination fees will be waived.

In a statement, Cox said it was killing its wireless service for several reasons, including "the lack of wireless scale necessary to compete in the marketplace, the acceleration of competitive 4G networks as well as the inability to access iconic wireless devices." privately-held Cox never revealed how many wireless customers it had. The service was bundled with its other offerings and the company had launched wireless service in less than 50 percent of its total footprint. Cox said none of its other services, including TV and broadband, will be affected by the move.

Cox isn't the only cable company to fail to make inroads into the wireless market. Time Warner Cable and Comcast which are wholesale customers of Clearwire's (NASDAQ:CLWR) mobile WIMAX network, have repeatedly said that wireless has been an exceedingly small part of their overall business. Indeed, Time Warner has said that wireless demand is tepid at best.

It is unclear what will become of Cox's wireless spectrum. In 2006, Cox teamed with Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Sprint as the SpectrumCo joint venture to bid on AWS spectrum licenses during the FCC's Auction 66. (Sprint exited SpectrumCo in 2007.) SpectrumCo in 2006 spent $2.4 billion on licenses covering most of the populated areas of the United States. Then, in March 2008, Cox separately purchased around two dozen 700 MHz licenses in parts of Florida, Virginia, the southwest and elsewhere for $305 million as part of the FCC's 700 MHz spectrum auction, dubbed Auction 73.

In an interview with FierceWireless in June, Kelly Williams, Cox's vice president of wireless products and operations, said that having spectrum gives the company options other carriers without spectrum do not have." [S]o we're taking a look at a whole variety of potential approaches to providing 4G service," he said. "That being said, we're still really in the middle of a lot of discussions with a lot of different entities, and doing strategic work internally, so it's difficult for me to really comment beyond that. But [our] spectrum could play a role in how we bring 4G to market."

"We don't believe this decision has any new impact on our 700 MHz and our AWS spectrum. We remain in full compliance with FCC spectrum requirements," Cox spokesman Todd Smith told FierceWireless. "We understand the importance of wireless to the customer experience and are looking at several options to fulfill this need. We will share more information at a later date."