

“If You’re Not Pissed Off, You’re Not Paying Attention” - cnst
http://newsroom.t-mobile.com/issues-insights-blog/save-wireless-choice.htm

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upofadown
I am pissed off that the powers that be are still allocating separate spectrum
for separate companies. That worked once for analog cell phone service. It
doesn't work any more and is wildly inefficient. The present approach is
pretty much the same as those stupid proposals to have each possible company
run a separate fiber to each building.

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cnst
Only one company can use a given piece of spectrum in a given territory.

What they should be ensuring, however, is that each piece of spectrum from a
given auction is equivalent to the other piece, so that we don't have another
situation like the one with 700MHz where LTE Band 12 had to be abandoned due
to high-power transmission TV channels, and AT&T got itself a new Band 17 as a
subset of Band 12, whereas T-Mobile and the regional carriers ended up having
to wait many years until they can finally start using Band 12 fully, and even
today many new phones still don't support Band 12, all whilst having full
support for the subset in the face of Band 17.

Of course, the problematic part comes in the face of the fact that T-Mobile
and other smaller carriers need spectrum NOW or at the very least ASAP,
whereas broadcasters are still using most of it, and must be compensated for
having to surrender it, or pay extra to continue using it etc, thus the whole
thing is a big mess, basically.

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upofadown
>Only one company can use a given piece of spectrum in a given territory.

That's the part I disagree with. In general, last mile infrastructure needs to
be shared. The smaller carriers don't need spectrum, they need access to their
customers. As it is now they need to either try to strike a deal with a
company with a government granted monopoly or they have to get their own
monopoly in exchange for a large kickback.

