AT&T is exploring “multiple” options for finding more spectrum, rather...
AT&T is exploring “multiple” options for finding more spectrum, rather than just waiting for auctions, Pete Ritcher, senior vice president of AT&T Mobility, said at the Deutsche Bank conference Wednesday. “Spectrum in the long term is very, very important,” Ritcher…
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said. “It depends from kind of market to market as to what our sort of spectrum needs are. I think the main thing is that it’s very clear that there needs to be more spectrum available in the market near term. … We've been very vocal about that.” Ritcher said AT&T is “looking at everything,” though he wouldn’t speculate on whether the carrier can find enough spectrum to meet its needs before the next big auction. “We need to make sure that the government sort of encourages … commercial arrangements that we have out there, that we're not talking about reducing spectrum screens but increasing spectrum screens,” he said. In New York City, where AT&T has 55 MHz of 850 MHz and 1.9 GHz spectrum, it has dedicated all but 5 MHz to handle 3G traffic in some parts of the city, he said. “We still have LTE spectrum that we will grow into,” he said. “We still have 5 MHz of 2G spectrum or whatever that we're migrating customers off of and moving to 3G.” AT&T isn’t “ready to run out of spectrum tomorrow” but has to “manage that migration of customers over to the available spectrum we have,” Ritcher said.