Wireless Carriers, Cable Operators Launch Additional Front in Spectrum War
Wireless carriers and cable operators are waging a new war over spectrum. Wireless groups launched a coalition, Spectrum for Broadband Competition, that accuses cable operators of trying to starve carriers of the additional full-power licensed spectrum they need as network data demands soar. The fight appears centered, in part, on the wireless industry’s pursuit of lower 3 GHz spectrum, a band that DOD uses widely and the 7/8 GHz bands (see 2502050038).
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The wireless groups urged an end to the “Cableopoly” over broadband to the home. U.S. consumers “love the competition and choice from the introduction of 5G Home Broadband and are breaking up with the Cableopoly in record numbers,” the coalition said Monday. “Every new quarter brings more happy 5G subscribers, while cable’s market share -- and Wall Street value -- gets smaller by the day.” In response to competition, “Cableopolists” are launching “a massive influence campaign to starve their competition of the spectrum it needs to expand access to more Americans.”
The cable-backed Spectrum for the Future responded: “CTIA’s latest campaign is just another tactic in their quest for another sweetheart deal on exclusively licensed spectrum that even their executives say they don’t need,” a spokesperson emailed. “With policymakers catching on to the Big Three’s wireless myths, CTIA is desperate to change the narrative as they attempt to limit the new, affordable mobile competition cable providers are offering US consumers.”
NCTA also slammed the new coalition. “Big Mobile’s sham coalition is nothing more than a smokescreen to hide the fact that today’s wireless robber barons want to advance policies that will allow them to hoard more public spectrum for their exclusive use, denying access to other innovators and wrecking national security in the process,” a spokesperson said via email.