Providing Service in Alaska Challenging, T-Mobile Says
T-Mobile provides service to its customers who travel within Alaska through a partnership with General Communications Inc. (GCI) because the geography, climate, terrain and government land-ownership issues make it challenging for T-Mobile to do it on its own, the company…
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said in an FCC filing Tuesday in docket 15-265. Because T-Mobile doesn't have the infrastructure to deploy services in Alaska, it chose to use one of the facilities-based operators serving the state that could make more efficient use of the spectrum covered by the license involved in the transaction in question -- consent to assign a lower 700 MHz A block license. GCI, as well as both T-Mobile and GCI's customers, will benefit because the sale of the license will ensure that spectrum covered by the license will be deployed more quickly than it might otherwise be, the filing said. GCI will also benefit from acquiring additional low-band spectrum that provides more coverage over large distances than high- or mid-band spectrum and can reduce network deployment costs in rural areas, T-Mobile said. T-Mobile will benefit from having an enhanced network for customers to roam on.