T-Mobile: FCC is wasting jobs and money on 2.5 GHz license delay

Americans stand to lose up to $42 billion and 17,000 job opportunities while the FCC sits on spectrum licenses that T-Mobile won in an auction last year, according to a new report prepared for T-Mobile.

The report, written by The Brattle Group for T-Mobile, concludes that T-Mobile’s 2.5GHz spectrum “would generate approximately $42 billion in consumer welfare.” The firm said the figure is “a measure of the value Americans lose by being denied access to this midband spectrum and the mobile service and 5G Home Broadband it enables.”

The report also warns that T-Mobile’s delayed capex investment in the Auction 108 licenses could result in significant job losses. “The creation of over 6,500 wireless industry jobs will be put on hold until the licenses are issued. The creation of approximately 17,000 jobs in the overall economy will be put on hold until the licenses are issued,” the report explained.

The FCC’s Auction 108 ended last year. T-Mobile spent $304 million in the auction, winning 90% of all the licenses sold, or 7,156 of the 7,872 total licenses that received winning bids.

However, the FCC lost its Congressional auction authority to administer spectrum licenses amid a Washington, DC, battle over the future of the 3.1GHz-3.45GHz spectrum band. As a result, T-Mobile’s Auction 108 winnings have been stuck in limbo for months amid Congressional crossfire.

T-Mobile argues that the FCC in fact does have the authority to issue its licenses, including under a temporary status. But FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has pushed back against that argument, asserting instead that the agency must first regain Congressional auction authority before approving the transfer of the licenses. (After this article was published, an FCC representative sent Light Reading the text of the legislation that prevents the FCC from issuing spectrum licenses.)

Political maneuvering

The Brattle Group is no stranger to the political battlefield. The firm often provides the economic arguments that support the political agenda of the CTIA, the US wireless industry’s main trade association. For example, the firm issued a report earlier this year that found that 5G networks in the US may begin to run out of capacity within the next five years. That directly supports CTIA’s efforts to encourage lawmakers to allocate more licensed spectrum to association members like Verizon and T-Mobile.

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