Competition, Convergence, and the Verizon-Cable Deal

Digital Liberty ^ | 2011-12-08 | [Staff]

[92nina]

Verizon’s decision last week to purchase a chunk of 4G spectrum from cable companies is a huge development for both the future of television and wireless. The move frees up spectrum desperately needed for consumers, increases competition in the wireless industry, and emphasizes just how much “anytime, anywhere” is the future of TV and content consumption.

Under the deal, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks will sell $3.6 billion worth of spectrum in the 700 MHz range – ideal for mobile broadband – to Verizon. This brings a notable amount of unused spectrum onto the market, covering over 80 percent of the population (with 259 million POPs).

There is a growing shortage of spectrum in the U.S. as wireless data demand grows by over 250% a year. Americans use more data than almost every other nation, yet we are on the verge of capacity constraints that are already felt in dense urban areas. For comparison, British consumers have 3.5 times the available spectrum as Americans, and the Japanese have well over 2 times as much.

The primary fault lies with the Federal Communications Commission and Congress, which are exasperatingly sluggish at bringing new spectrum to market. The last major auction was in 2008. (These licenses being sold to Verizon were acquired in 2006.) The FCC has only 50 MHz in the pipeline for auction, but it has sat on other spectrum it can auction such as the D Block. The Commission stalled the AT&T/T-Mobile merger aimed at more efficiently using spectrum to deal with capacity constraints. They've also slowed AT&T's purchase of Qualcomm spectrum. And they haven’t done much to mediate technical questions surrounding LightSquared’s effort to launch a satellite-based mobile broadband network, which has been in the works since the FCC granted them a license in 2004...

[92nina]

A developing progression in the market.

Take this article and others I found to the fight to the Libs on their own turf; put the Left on the defensive at Digg and at Reddit and in Stumbleupon and Delicious

[Wuli]

“The Commission stalled the AT&T/T-Mobile merger aimed at more efficiently using spectrum to deal with capacity constraints.”

Yet, AT&T’s argument was that without the T-Mobile merger it could not obtain additional needed spectrum, but the Verizon deal demonstrates that while the FCC’s rationale blocking the AT&T/TMobile deal is flawed, AT&T’s rationale that it could not otherwise expand its available bandwidth is also flawed. AT&T could have made the same deal that Verizon made with the cable-company hoarders of broadband spectrum.

I think the FCC is quite incompetent, but most likely so are the leaders at AT&T.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks 92nina.

Under the deal, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks will sell $3.6 billion worth of spectrum in the 700 MHz range -- ideal for mobile broadband -- to Verizon. This brings a notable amount of unused spectrum onto the market, covering over 80 percent of the population (with 259 million POPs). There is a growing shortage of spectrum in the U.S. as wireless data demand grows by over 250% a year... The primary fault lies with the Federal Communications Commission and Congress, which are exasperatingly sluggish at bringing new spectrum to market. The last major auction was in 2008.

Miss Me Yet ping.

[TheOldLady]

"Miss Me Yet"

Yeah.