US DTH group Dish Network is willing to disable a quarter of its uplink frequencies if it is allowed to quickly utilise the rest of its spectrum for terrestrial services.
In recently released regulatory filing, which details meetings held last week…
US DTH group Dish Network is willing to disable a quarter of its uplink frequencies if it is allowed to quickly utilise the rest of its spectrum for terrestrial services.
In recently released regulatory filing, which details meetings held last week between Dish and the FCC, the company said it had offered to designate the lowest 5 MHz of its uplink spectrum as a guard band. This would give the FCC greater flexibility when it comes to auction nearby H Block spectrum, which US mobile operator Sprint has already expressed interest in buying.
This stance appears to be a climb down from the position Dish took just weeks ago when it responded to similar proposals that were reportedly leaked from the FCC.
On 20 November, Dish general counsel Stanton Dodge criticised a move to disable 25% of its spectrum to give Sprint the same amount of frequencies as a zero-sum approach. He said at the time that such rules could cripple its ability to launch an LTE network.
But in the meeting last week, Dish offered to voluntarily establish the guard band, “provided that safeguards are adopted to ensure that the remaining 15 MHz of its uplink spectrum (2005-2020 MHz) can be utilised as fully and as quickly as possible for mobile broadband”.
The move means it is increasingly likely that the FCC could announce its ruling on whether to allow Dish to launch terrestrial services with its satellite spectrum before the end of the year. Analysts have said this decision could come as early as 12 December, when the FCC is scheduled to conduct an open meeting.
Dish received approval to acquire its 40 MHz of spectrum in April, but it has had to wait since then to find out whether the frequencies can be used to deploy a nationwide LTE network.
The wait has weighed heavily on the company. On 3 December it announced a US$1 per share special dividend, which was reportedly much lower than expected as a result of the uncertainty surrounding the FCC’s spectrum rulemaking process.
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