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[Satellite TODAY Insider 12-27-11] The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued its approval of a spectrum transfer between AT&T and Qualcomm, the commission confirmed Dec. 23.
Qualcomm’s $1.925 billion 700MHz spectrum sale deal with AT&T was initially announced in December 2010. The purchase authorization was held up due to matters that needed to be settled concerning the conditions of closing. Now that it has obtained authorization, AT&T aims to employ a new carrier aggregation technology, which will position the spectrum as a supplemental downlink.
“We are very pleased that the FCC has approved the sale of our spectrum licenses and look forward to working with AT&T to deploy supplemental downlink. This is a positive outcome for Qualcomm and our stakeholders,” Qualcomm Chairman and CEO Paul Jacobs said in a statement. “We would like to express our appreciation to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, his fellow FCC Commissioners and the FCC staff. The use of supplemental downlink will enable the efficient use of unpaired spectrum for mobile broadband in the U.S. and a richer, faster mobile experience for consumers.”
The FCC’s decision also imposes a condition that will prevent AT&T from using the downlink-only spectrum it just acquired in a way that prevents data roaming by partners who already roam on the Cellular, PCS and AWS bands, or even other parts of the lower 700 MHz band.
The Rural Telecommunications Group (RTG) disagreed with the FCC authorization of the bandwidth purchase and said its disappointed that the commission was unable to impose all of the conditions that it and other parties initially requested. RTG General Counsel Carri Bennet, however, said that RTG was at least encouraged that the FCC recognized the value of the lower 700 MHz band airwaves that AT&T is inheriting, considering the size of its deep spectrum holdings.
“Most encouraging is Chairman Genachowski’s promise to institute a rulemaking proceeding that will deal with interoperability of devices across all of the valuable 700 MHz spectrum band since without such interoperability, the data roaming rules lose their meaning on technical incompatibility grounds,” Bennet said in a statement. “With full interoperability, all roamers, whether rural or urban and whether commercial or public safety, will be able to benefit from the increased usability and coverage of LTE devices. RTG also commends the FCC for refraining from issuing a final order on the AT&T-Qualcomm spectrum transfer until there was a final resolution of the now-scuttled AT&T and T-Mobile merger.”
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