Sprint will be spending $105 million to purchase spectrum from Wirefree, the third-largest carrier said in its quarterly filing.
Sprint will be acquiring 10 MHz of spectrum across 16 markets and it’s in the 1900 MHz band, which is also the band the carrier’s CDMA technology runs in. Sprint said it expects the deal to go though by the fourth quarter of this year.
This move should mean Sprint customers in these markets could receive better coverage. The markets include: Austin, Texas; Cincinnati, Ohio; Gallup, N.M.; Virginia Beach, Va.; and Seattle, Wash.
The Sprint bid again shows the importance of owning spectrum. Unlike the wired broadband world, there is somewhat of a real limitation of bandwidth when it comes to the mobile broadband world. The Federal Communication Commission has hoped that the mobile broadband sector will help bridge the digital divide in this country, but we may soon face a spectrum crisis.
The FCC and U.S. President Obama have pledged to auction off an additional 500 MHz of spectrum that will be used by mobile providers primarily for mobile broadband services. This move is facing some resistance from television broadcasters and wireless microphone makers because the spectrum has to be “taken away” from someone.
It’s clear that the mobile providers do need some more spectrum but there could be a compromise which makes all business interests happy. More efficient uses of technologies means providers could even clear spectrum for other industries, as Sprint recently did this with 35 MHz of spectrum which will be used by mobile satellite providers and broadband competitors.
The lack of resources is one of the reasons Verizon and Google make special exemptions for the mobile broadband space when it issued a joint policy statement regarding net neutrality. The statement was not well-received by the FCC, which said it did not do enough for consumers.
[Via Fierce Wireless]