Verizon: T-Mobile's Legere 'Is Simply Wrong'
Jun 12, 2015, 8:32 AM by Eric M. Zeman
Verizon Wireless fired back at T-Mobile CEO John Legere after he entreated Americans to ask the FCC for help. T-Mobile wants 40MHz of spectrum in the upcoming 600MHz spectrum auction to be set aside for smaller carriers. The FCC has agreed to 30MHz. Legere insists 40MHz is the minimum needed to keep the U.S. wireless industry competitive, and he claims AT&T and Verizon are trying to shut it out. Verizon begs to differ. "T-Mobile is more than welcome to participate in any auction the FCC holds. No company can prevent another from participating. The last time large swaths of low-band spectrum came to auction in 2007, for example, T-Mobile could have participated. It chose not to," said Verizon in a post to its public policy blog. Moreover, Verizon points out that it is in fact T-Mobile that has pushed Verizon out of the 600MHz auction and not the other way around. "Some companies can attempt to bake rules into an auction to prevent other companies from participating fairly. Mr. Legere and T-Mobile are" doing exactly that. "For example, T-Mobile — and Sprint and Dish — lobbied for and received from the FCC a set aside of spectrum in the upcoming auction that only they are allowed to bid on. Verizon can't. AT&T can't." Verizon further argues that qualifying Sprint and T-Mobile as "small carriers" is disingenuous at best, given the size and valuation of their parent organizations (SoftBank and Deutsche Telekom, respectively). Verizon also stuck a barb in the side of Dish Networks. "The FCC doesn't need to give additional handouts to global companies with the financial wherewithal to compete. Nor should it be handing out discounted spectrum to companies [Dish] with a track record of not investing in networks or serving consumers. The record of the U.S. wireless marketplace is clear: if one invests in networks, innovates and meets consumer needs, success can follow, with no need for government assistance." The FCC hasn't made a final decision on the 40MHz request, but is leaning on leaving the concession at 30MHz.
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Comments
Way to parry words Verizon.
Umm, that is not what T-Mobile is complaining about. Tmobile has every intention to bid. The point is that T-Mobile can have all the money in the world and bid its ass off only to receive the maximum of 30mhz.
It irks me when VZW and AT&T twist the logic to mask the facts. Is VZW and ATT willing to surrender blocks of 700Mhz in order to compensate for the 600 they will gain? I would most certainly like to see this happen to provide a balance.
John B.
Wow... Verizon is full of deceit
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Your head
Verizon is pointing out how it's hypocritical for tmobile to be a big company but still hold victim /underdog status to curry favor for a legeslative(sp) block on bigger companies for the auction.
So no they a...
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I remember reading something about 1-2 months ago about how although ATT and Verizon may own the most bandwidth, they have the least amount of bandwidth per customer when compared to T-Mobile and Sprint.
That is why Verizon and ATT ...
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