Verizon today announced its plans to sell off all of its 700 MHz A and B spectrum licenses to rationalize its spectrum holdings. This sale will go down if the government allows the largest wireless provider in the United States to buy AWS spectrum from a contingent of cable companies.
The plan for Verizon is to expand its LTE 4G network (which currently lives on its 700 MHz upper C band) onto the AWS spectrum it’s trying to acquire. Big Red is hell-bent on grabbing as much spectrum as it can to add to its already widespread lead in LTE coverage, which recently expanded to cover more than two-thirds of the US population. According to Verizon, obtaining the new AWS licenses will provide them the bandwidth it needs.
This spectrum grab has turned Verizon into a villain from both the government and general public. It’s understandable for many people to think that VZ is just trying to hoard spectrum away from the competition, but you must realize that they [Verizon] have no other option when it comes to growing out its bandwidth. The government owns the majority of the bandwidth in the country, and for the most part, they don’t use it for squat — there just sitting on it.
Since the government hans’t come to any kind of conclusion how they’ll distribute its trove of spectrum, giant wireless companies like Verizon will continue to search elsewhere.