Mobile operator Verizon Wireless has defended its proposed US$4bn acquisitions of spectrum and hit back at a leading opponent of the deals, T-Mobile USA. Verizon’s VP for wireless policy development, Charla Rath, said in a blog post, that the company…
Mobile operator Verizon Wireless has defended its proposed US$4bn acquisitions of spectrum and hit back at a leading opponent of the deals, T-Mobile USA.
Verizon’s VP for wireless policy development, Charla Rath, said in a blog post, that the company needed the new spectrum in order to meet growing demand for mobile broadband.
Rath also claimed that Verizon uses its current spectrum two times more efficiently than T-Mobile USA, which called on the FCC to block the deal on 21 February.
“This purchase is clearly in the public interest,” Rath said.
In its filing earlier this week, T-Mobile said that the regulator should block the deals in order to avoid an “excessive concentration” of spectrum.
The mobile operator said that “the principal impact of the acquisition would be to foreclose the possibility that this spectrum could be acquired by smaller competitors – such as T-Mobile – who would use it more quickly, more intensively and more efficiently than Verizon Wireless”.
In response, Verizon’s Rath said “it’s hard to imagine anyone launching LTE more quickly and more broadly than Verizon did”.
The two acquisitions of Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum were originally announced by Verizon in December.
The first would see Verizon paying US$3.6bn to acquire 122 AWS licences from SpectrumCo, a JV made up of three major cablecos: Bright House Networks, Comcast and Time Warner Cable.
The second is the US$315m acquisition of 20MHz of AWS spectrum from Cox Communications.
Telcos MetroPCS Communications and Hawaiian Telcom Communications also this week made petitions to deny the deal.
Verizon Wireless is a JV between US telco Verizon Communications, which holds a 55% stake, and Vodafone, which owns the rest of the company.
T-Mobile set for expansion in the US
T-Mobile’s parent company, Deutsche Telekom, used its annual results presentation yesterday to announce a push of its US business.
US$1.4bn of investment will go into a planned LTE network, set to launch in 2013.
Deutsche Telekom’s CEO Rene Obermann accepted that 2011 had been a “difficult year” for T-Mobile. The company lost 802,000 contract customers in Q4 and revenue for the full year fell by 3.3% to US$20.6bn.
The company’s LTE plans have been aided by receiving spectrum as a part of the break-up fee for the aborted AT&T acquisition.
In her statement, Verizon’s Rath claimed that T-Mobile will be getting 10-20MHz of AWS spectrum as a result of the deal.
Deutsche Telekom said in a statement that the value of the spectrum received from AT&T was €900m (US$1.2bn).
