AT&T, Verizon Wireless divulge more details on 4G plans

Now that the FCC has lifted its gag order on Auction 73, major wireless bandwidth stakeholders are talking about their strategies around 4G LTE wireless, where AT&T will play in the B Block of the 700 MHz spectrum and Verizon Wireless in the more tightly regulated C Block.

Verizon Wireless, the big winner in the C Block auction that ended on March 20, confirmed in a conference call today that it will use its newly won bandwidth to launch LTE services for consumers in the 2010 time frame.

Lowell McAdam, the company's president and CEO, told analysts and journalists that the company's new bandwidth supplies speed and performance which will add up to a great platform for connecting smartphones, gaming machines, digital video recorders (DVRs), home monitoring devices, and many other sorts of consumer electronic (CE) equipment.

Aside from devices, the 4G network will also connect "people and places," said McAdam, who speculated that consumers might use an average of three or four devices apiece on the 4G network.

McAdam foresaw strong 4G opportunities for Verizon Wireless among business customers, too.

Using a recently forged deal with Real's Rhapsody as an example, McAdam pointed to possibilities for many new partnerships between Verizon Wireless and other companies.

The Verizon Wireless chief also said that, during this week's CTIA show in Las Vegas, he'd taken note of a lot of improvements in browsers for wireless devices.

Verizon Wireless will pay $9.36 billion for new FCC licenses that include a nationwide spectrum (with the exception of Alaska) in the C Block, along with 102 licenses for individual markets around the US.

But meanwhile, in a conference call late yesterday, AT&T confirmed the hunches of some observers that the company didn't much want the C Block spectrum won by Verizon Wireless in the recent auction, anyway.

AT&T execs told analysts and journalists that the spectrum will give the company 100 percent coverage in the 700 MHz spectrum in the top 200 markets in the US.

AT&T had already won a chunk of the 700 MHz B Block spectrum. Beyond that, before the C Block auction, AT&T spent $2.5 billion in acquiring Aloha Partners LP, a carrier that owned C Block spectrum without the "open access" requirements that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is imposing on winners of the recently closed C Block auction.

The C Block auction "highlights that people put a premium on spectrum that is not encumbered by regulation," said Ralph de la Vega, chief executive of AT&T's wireless unit, during the AT&T call.

AT&T execs also contended that the 700 MHz spectrum is well suited to penetrating walls for in-building coverage.

With LTE services from AT&T and Verizon Wireless not expected to emerge until at least 2010, however, 4G players in the higher frequency WiMAX spectrums hold an early market advantage right now, according to analysts at Maravedis, a Montreal-based market research and analysis firm focusing on the telecom industry.
https://betanews.com/article/The_WiMAX_monetization_challenge_When_and_how/1206367539

Generally speaking, though, the 700 MHz band is seen as offering advantages in terms of both wider coverage range and better ability to penetrate walls, trees, and other obstacles. Yet services running in the higher bandwidths -- such as the 2.5 GHz frequency range Sprint holds for its planned Xohm service -- offer the potential to carry more data, said Jeff Orr, a senior analyst at Maravedis, in an interview with BetaNews.

But why will it take so long for LTE services to unfold? For one thing, the FCC still needs to clear the 700 MHz spectrum for use.

In addition, however, LTE carriers still need to do a lot of work on upgrading their technology, as well as on creating new 4G-enabled product offerings, noted Juan Saca, vice president of Capgemini's Wireless Practice.

"They'll also need marketing strategies to go with those new products," the Capgemini analyst told BetaNews.