Interoperability Issues Loom for 600 MHz Band After Incentive Auction
With Verizon and Sprint sitting out the TV incentive auction and AT&T buying relatively few 600 MHz licenses, some observers say interoperability issues could loom. But others say they have few worries and T-Mobile, with more than 70 million subscribers, is big enough to drive the market. T-Mobile stressed in a news release last week that equipment makers are looking to the band.
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The conventional wisdom is that a broad, international market is important to a healthy device ecosystem. That’s why, in part, former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler made a trip to Geneva in 2015 to push unsuccessfully for a more harmonized global approach on the 600 MHz band (see 1511050041). In the 2008 700 MHz auction, Verizon and AT&T, more so then than the now dominant carriers, went big. Five years after the auction, the FCC had to force a deal to ensure device interoperability in the part of the 700 MHz band where competitive carriers were deploying (see 1309110036).
“What’s going to happen to the development of that band, standards and everything, if people are going to have to do it on their own?” asked a former FCC spectrum official. Without other major carriers “in the tent” it’s hard to get a critical mass, the former official said. A former FCC engineer said T-Mobile and other buyers might have a problem. “The U.S. is a big market for high end equipment,” the former official said. If all carriers were using the band, there would be a lot of pressure for manufacturers to offer devices, but less with fewer carriers.
Interoperability is a potential problem in the 600 MHz band, said Doug Brake, telecom policy analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. “Typically the U.S. market is large enough to pull device manufacturers along, even if we lack global harmonization, plus Canada is planning to eventually follow our 600 MHz band plan,” Brake said. “But if a band is further fragmented with different players going different directions, the economics become more challenging.” The FCC’s 600 MHz interoperability mandate also isn’t specific to any technology, as opposed to 700 MHz, which was LTE specific, “so we could conceivably see different types of networks in the band,” Brake said.
“It makes sense this could be a concern, since chipmakers and smartphone makers are typically looking for big volumes before integrating a new band in a device,” said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America. “At a minimum it could cause delay and higher prices before T-Mobile is able to put the spectrum in service.”
Satellite consultant Tim Farrar noted Monday that he predicted in a blog post last year AT&T would barely play in the auction and AT&T and Verizon would strand investments by others by not supporting the band.
T-Mobile addressed potential concerns in its news release last week after the auction results were unveiled. “Already Ericsson and Nokia have announced availability of 600 MHz equipment that T-Mobile will use in its network, and the Un-carrier has 600 MHz licenses covering over one million square miles where T-Mobile expects at least 10 MHz to be clear this year -- meaning T-Mobile’s network team can start working to light it up for customers,” T-Mobile said. T-Mobile and the device makers didn’t comment.
T-Mobile has a history of leading on new spectrum bands and was one of the leaders in getting both AWS-1 and AWS-3 deployed, a wireless industry engineer noted.
Network architect Richard Bennett said T-Mobile and other buyers need not be concerned. “For all practical purposes, a 700 MHz phone is the same as a 600 MHz phone,” he told us. “There will be some minor firmware modifications, but nothing of any significance.”