AT&T Says EchoStar Spectrum Helps It Stay Competitive
AT&T told the DOJ that it needs to buy “unused 3.45 GHz and underutilized 600 MHz Spectrum” from EchoStar to compete in an increasingly competitive wireless market, according to documents filed at the FCC. AT&T's arguments to DOJ were submitted to the FCC at commission staff’s request and posted Tuesday in docket 25-303. The company recently said it has already started to deploy the 3.45 GHz licenses it bought from EchoStar (see 2511170023), adding coverage to nearly 23,000 cellsites in a matter of weeks.
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AT&T “competes aggressively nationwide with Verizon and T-Mobile, despite lagging in mid-band spectrum essential to optimal 5G performance,” said the filing, which was partially redacted. Comcast, Charter and Cox, meanwhile, are “formidable, fast-growing competitors, offering mobile wireless throughout their vast cable franchises through hybrid approaches that combine wholesale inputs with their own standalone 5G mobile wireless cores, extensive public Wi-Fi networks, and steeply discounted converged wireline/wireless offerings,” AT&T said. There are also scores of mobile virtual network operators “that successfully exploit many consumer preferences and niches.”
The company said it plans to deploy much of the 3.45 GHz spectrum within months. It will use the 600 MHz licenses “to alleviate congestion in its low-band spectrum, improve in-building service quality, and ensure that it has adequate low-band spectrum to support deployment of 5G and 6G while preserving incumbent LTE services that will require dedicated channels into the next decade.” The spectrum will help AT&T expand its fixed wireless offering, where it now trails Verizon and T-Mobile, the filing added.