Verizon Wireless stressed in a filing at the FCC that...

by FCC staff in various meetings, Verizon said. “Verizon Wireless has previously explained that it fully intends to refarm PCS spectrum for LTE when that spectrum is available,” the carrier said. “But PCS refarming alone cannot offset the increasing capacity constraints on the company’s LTE network, and thus is not a substitute for additional AWS spectrum. The company’s traffic projections through 2015 demonstrate the need for additional AWS spectrum to provide the 4G LTE data rates customers expect and Verizon Wireless intends to provide. Without the additional AWS spectrum that is the subject of this transaction, significant capacity constraints will occur on the LTE network.” Another complicating factor, Verizon said, is the amount of PCS spectrum available for refarming is limited. Verizon “requires, at a minimum, a 5 x 5 PCS spectrum block to meet its service objectives, and the spectrum must be available across an entire market,” it said. “LTE and CDMA technologies cannot share the same spectrum block in proximity to one another without significant service degradation. Accordingly, PCS spectrum cannot be used for LTE until all adjacent cell sites using the same 5 x 5 block have been cleared of CDMA operations. Guard bands (by frequency) and guard zones (by geography) are needed to mitigate inter-technology interference.” Most of the hard data Verizon is submitting was redacted from the public version of the filing.