AT&T, Dish, T-Mobile bicker over limits on spectrum ownership

Some of the nation’s biggest 5G network operators agree that there should be limits on the amount of spectrum any one player can accumulate. But they differ dramatically on the details.

“The commission’s current spectrum holdings policies and rules are unquestionably out of date and in need of reform,” wrote T-Mobile in a recent filing to the FCC.

However, the company argued that putting strict limits on the amount of spectrum that any one company can own is difficult in the technologically advanced 5G era.

“The emergence of fixed wireless service offerings that depend on large spectrum holdings to compete with wired broadband providers is just one example of how the fundamental assumptions underlying the use of spectrum screens are no longer valid,” T-Mobile wrote.

Indeed, T-Mobile just this week reported a total of 557,000 new fixed wireless access (FWA) customers, a figure above most analysts’ expectations and slightly ahead of the company’s recent quarterly pace. The gains bring the company’s total FWA customer base to 4.2 million.

Instead, T-Mobile argued, the FCC should only create limits on the amount of spectrum any one company can purchase in an agency spectrum auction.

“Upfront limits are the most effective way to ensure robust auction participation and fast, efficient licensing to put auctioned spectrum to use for consumers,” T-Mobile said.

But Dish Network, which is building a fourth nationwide 5G network, has different ideas.

“The commission should establish a national screen of 25%,” Dish told the FCC. “Such a screen is consistent with the objective of a mobile voice and broadband market with at least four nationwide carriers. Exceedance of that screen should not only justify heightened review; it should create a rebuttable presumption of denial of any transaction that results in (or starts from) such an exceedance.”

Screens and limits

The FCC first introduced its spectrum screen in 2004 to prevent wireless network operators from gobbling up all the market’s available spectrum, thereby blocking rivals from acquiring it. The screen is generally triggered when any one company acquires more than one-third of the total suitable and available spectrum for commercial services in a given market. 

The agency subsequently tweaked the screen, first in 2014 to specifically target spectrum below 1GHz and then again in 2016 to carve out rules designed for millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum bands, generally those above 20GHz. 

Now, the FCC has agreed to consider an AT&T proposal to update its screen to develop specific rules regarding midband spectrum, which sits between 2.5GHz and 6GHz. Such spectrum is often considered ideal for 5G.

AT&T’s proposal stems from the midband spectrum T-Mobile has accumulated through its purchase of Sprint and its subsequent spectrum shopping spree.

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