FCC greenlights AT&T purchase of Aloha Wireless’ 700Mhz spectrum
By Will Park on Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at 1:14 PM PST In AT&T, Announcements, FCC, Technologies
While most in the mobile space are focused on the winner of the FCC’s 700Mhz spectrum auction, more specifically the open-access C-block auction, the FCC has given the thumbs-up for AT&T to gobble up Aloha Wireless’ 700Mhz spectrum.
The $2.5 billion deal would net AT&T (NYSE: T) a 12Mhz slice of the 700Mhz frequency band and an additional 700Mhz licenses in 281 US markets - including 72 of the top 100 markets and all 10 of the top 10 US markets - from Aloha Partners LP.
AT&T says that it will use the newly acquired spectrum to deliver “broadcast video or for two-way communications such as voice, data or multicast content.” AT&T’s MediaFLO is a likely contender for the broadcast video service, but Aloha’s DVB-H trials could also pop-up as a broadcast video standard. We’ll have to wait and see.
It looks like AT&T’s 700Mhz aspirations are wrapped. Now we turn our attention to the FCC auction. Google? Verizon (NYSE: VZ)? Stay tuned.
[Via: PCWorld]
