Outlook Uncertain for Reallocation of 1755 MHz Band, Pearson Says

Wireless demand is exploding in the U.S., Pearson said. “Spectrum is the key ingredient to continuing this growth in the Americas,” he said. “Many of the Latin American countries that 4G Americas works with, and the operators in those countries, are looking very closely at their spectrum plans and are going to be making their spectrum plans very soon. We've already seen some of this. It’s a critical point for the United States to make some decisions."

There have been 22 deployments of LTE worldwide so far, Pearson noted. “Every single one of them is in new spectrum, just like in the United States so far, with MetroPCS, with Verizon and then … this year we'll see AT&T deploy LTE,” he said. “It’s crucial to our industry to get more spectrum out there that’s internationally harmonized. There are bands out there we need to focus on."

4G Americas strongly supports the administration’s push for 500 MHz of spectrum to be rededicated to wireless broadband, Pearson said. Technical innovations by themselves won’t solve the spectrum crunch, he said. “What’s going to get us through the spectrum crunch is to bring more spectrum to market and the governments that are realizing that are getting spectrum to market,” he said. Other governments recognize that making more spectrum available will “help their economies, will bring out new infrastructure, new devices, employ people,” he said.

NTIA Associate Administrator Karl Nebbia recently addressed 4G Americas’ executive board, discussing in part the 1755 MHz band, Pearson said. “It sounds like there’s still quite a bit of uncertainty about whether that spectrum would be available,” Pearson said. “Right now NTIA is studying the various uses of that, which is quite a difficult task. All of the users of that spectrum typically haven’t been coordinated. They've just used that spectrum. Versus our industry, everyone knows who exactly is using it for what.” It’s “encouraging,” Pearson said, that members of Congress understand the importance of the band to the wireless industry.

The U.S. decision on the 1755 MHz band is being watched elsewhere, Pearson said. “A lot of the Americas region is looking closely at whether that is going to be available in the United States and could influence the decisions in Latin America,” he said. “Once a decision is made then other countries in the Americas can begin to plan around that spectrum.”

U.S. carriers are unlikely to move very quickly to make “fat” channel LTE available, similar to 20 x 20 LTE being started by Deutsche Telekom in Germany, Pearson said. Some non-U.S. carriers have more spectrum available, he said. “They go to their cupboard and they can bring out these 20 MHz channels,” he said. “The challenge in the United States is finding spectrum like that to bring to market … Over time you could see this happening, but it won’t happen very soon.”

Clearwire, which has large amounts of spectrum it hasn’t deployed, could be one of the few U.S. exceptions, Pearson said. Some U.S. carriers may also consider refarming some of their spectrum for wider LTE channels, he said. Pearson said Australian carrier Telstra has been the only operator in the world that’s looking at refarming spectrum for LTE, rededicating its 800 MHz spectrum which it’s been using for GSM service. “What they said is they can’t wait for the government any longer to get spectrum for LTE and they're ready to go,” he said. “That’s definitely not the norm.”