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T-Mobile Hits Back At AT&T and Verizon After Spectrum-Hoarding Accusations
from the there-are-always-two-sides-to-every-story dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:
T-Mobile US CEO Mike Sievert yesterday fired back at AT&T and Verizon, saying the carriers' complaints about T-Mobile obtaining more spectrum licenses show that they are afraid of competition. "The duopolists are scrambling to block this new competition any way they can... Suddenly in the unfamiliar position of not having a dominant stranglehold on the wireless market, and preferring not to meet the competitive challenge in the marketplace, AT&T and Verizon are urging the FCC to slow T-Mobile down and choke off our ability to compete fairly for added radio spectrum," Sievert wrote in a blog post. As we wrote Monday, Verizon and AT&T have urged the Federal Communications Commission to impose limits on T-Mobile's ability to obtain more spectrum licenses. AT&T complained that T-Mobile's acquisition of Sprint allowed it to amass "an unprecedented concentration of spectrum." 

Verizon has the most spectrum of any US carrier "by far" but "has the anti-competitive instincts and sheer audacity to complain that a much smaller T-Mobile has too much," Sievert wrote. "After holding massive spectrum advantages over T-Mobile and others for decades, Verizon and AT&T just can't stand the idea of anyone else being ahead of them or having a fair shot in an auction where they plan to use their financial might to do what they have always done -- dominate." Sievert also wrote that the 600MHz spectrum T-Mobile is leasing was previously controlled by AT&T. "AT&T had won at auction the spectrum that Columbia Capital is now leasing to T-Mobile and -- guess what -- AT&T decided it didn't want it and sold it to Columbia," Sievert wrote. "Verizon, the ringleader in opposing this lease, never bothered to even show up and bid for any 600MHz spectrum. In short, we have AT&T and Verizon seeking to block T-Mobile from using spectrum that AT&T decided to jettison, and Verizon had no interest in pursuing. Now both companies are seeking to block T-Mobile from putting this spectrum to use for the benefit of American consumers."
Posted by BeauHD 6 hours ago
att business fcc spectrum tmobile

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14 Comments
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This is all BS anyway. (+1)
Anonymous Coward 6 hours ago
The Constitution does not assign the power to allocate and sell spectrum to the Federal Government. Any powers not specifically given to the Federal Government was supposed to go to the States. Therefore, each State should be able to handle the spectrum allocation within their borders. I'm sure the Feds would invoke the interstate commerce clause because that's their answer for every power grab they've ever done, but it's all a load of BS.
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Re: This is all BS anyway. (+4, Insightful)
freeze128 6 hours ago
Radio signals do not adhere to governmental borders.
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Re: This is all BS anyway. (+1)
XXongo 5 hours ago
Radio signals do not adhere to governmental borders.
And they do not adhere to state borders. There is an explicit right in the constitution to regulate interstate commerce.
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Re: This is all BS anyway. (+1)
markdavis 4 hours ago
>"There is an explicit right in the constitution to regulate interstate commerce."
Which has been severely abused, way beyond what the Founders could ever imagine, such that now almost ANYTHING could be construed as "interstate commerce."
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Re: This is all BS anyway. 
Anonymous Coward 3 hours ago
Sorry I meant to upmod your post but I think I accidentally downmodded it. Still new at this.
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Re: This is all BS anyway. (+1)
Ungrounded Lightning an hour ago
Sorry I meant to upmod your post but I think I accidentally downmodded it. Still new at this.
By posting in the discussion of the article you canceled any moderation you'd done to any response within it. So though you haven't (and now can't) give him the upmod you intended, your downmod is now gone. So you're cool.
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Re: This is all BS anyway. (+1)
Ungrounded Lightning an hour ago
 Sorry I meant to upmod your post but I think I accidentally downmodded it. Still new at this.
By posting in the discussion of the article you canceled any moderation you'd done to any response within it. So though you haven't (and now can't) give him the upmod you intended, your downmod is now gone. So you're cool.
Oops: You posted as an Anonymous Coward, so the cancelation DIDN'T happen. Post another reply using your i.d. and you'll cancel the downmod.
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Re: This is all BS anyway. 
Anonymous Coward 3 hours ago
That's just a technicality. The point for the interstate commerce clause is to resolve disputes among states. For instance one could argue that the EPA is illegal because perhaps it technically violates the letter of the law, because it doesn't directly deal with interstate commerce (though pollution in one state could affect the commerce of another state indirectly?) but because pollution in one state can affect another state I would argue that the EPA does not violate the spirit of the law. Just that when the document was written the founding fathers did not have the concept of pollution that we have today.
Likewise signals broadcasted in one state that another state can pick up on is not technically commerce itself (though it can contain commercials which relates to commerce and it can perhaps interfere with the commercials in signals from another state. I would argue that all spectra that the government grants a monopoly on should not have commercials whatsoever. They should be regulated only in the public interest if such monopolies are to exist at all). The spirit of the law is to resolve disputes among states.
One could argue that one state could reasonably dispute the pollution that another state sends its way. It's hard to argue that signals sent in one state that hardly make it to another could possibly reasonably be disputed by said state as causing damages. Perhaps along the borders to a small extent but that's about it.
The FCC has taken this WAY too far. They have clearly violated the spirit of the law if not the letter.
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Re: This is all BS anyway. 
Anonymous Coward 5 hours ago
Radio signals do not adhere to governmental borders.
You're talking to an idiot citing a 200-year old document as the reason it should, which is the real BS here.
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Re: This is all BS anyway. (+1)
yassa2020 11 minutes ago
Right. They don't stop at the Mexico-US or US-Canada border either. So what makes States unequipped but the Fed can?
As for the constitutional question I think it falls within interstate commerce but not strongly enough to argue the position. It has been a greased up slope.
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Re: This is all BS anyway. (+1)
inode_buddha 5 hours ago
No, but it *does* assign power to the Congress, which can create such things as the FCC to regulate it as they see fit.
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Re: This is all BS anyway. (+1)
Aighearach 4 hours ago
That's a derptastic analysis, did you hear that on AM radio? Or social media?
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Re: This is all BS anyway. (+1)
ghoul an hour ago
I dont get this stupid obsession with states rights in a country which doesnt even respect sovereign rights of other nations. USA is out there right out committing high seas piracy on Iranian tankers headed to Venezuela and you think the Federal govt wil respect States Rights ??????? Heck Iran has a military. Where are the Alabama tanks or the Texas Air Force?
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Verizon isn't counting its 5G mm band spectrum 
Anonymous Coward an hour ago
https://arstechnica.com/tech-p...
Sievert pointed out that Verizon has more spectrum than T-Mobile when including high-band spectrum that isn't counted in the FCC's screen:

        Citing the "spectrum screen", AT&T and Verizon would like to keep T-Mobile out of the bidding or at least put a damper on our ability to aggressively bid against them in this important auction, so that they can run the table unchecked. The "spectrum screen" was put in place years ago with good intention and broad support including from T-Mobile—to help ensure competition in the market when spectrum supply was limited—but is now being cited by AT&T and Verizon for reasons entirely opposite to this intention. And importantly, the "spectrum screen" pre-dates, and therefore ignores, certain 5G spectrum where Verizon already dominates. In fact, Verizon holds massive spectrum (far more than T-Mobile's entire portfolio of low, mid-, and high-band spectrum) in the "millimeter wave" bands, which are the cornerstone of their 5G strategy and which are not subject to the "spectrum screen".
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Use it or lose it (+1)
Malays2 bowman in a few seconds
No, I didn't RTFA, but if they are buying up spectrum, and just 'sitting on it' to block competition, they deserve to lose it AND be locked out of it for 10 years. And their system, within a year or less, must be fully up, running, and operational and covering the geographical areas they were given access to (this is to stop legal trickery like building one tower forever in 'test mode')
I see this as both preventing abuse and forcing companies to build a working infrastructure as fast as they can, with motivation of not losing their spectrum to someone else.
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