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Oct. 18, 2008

T-Mobile continues to pressure the FCC against M2Z Network's plans on AWS-3 spectrum. This time, it is considering legal action to further escalate matters.

T-Mobile is currently the top opponent to the FCC’s increasingly likely plan for auctioning AWS-3 spectrum, and said it still has a few options to use as it hopes for a late-game comeback.

The U.S.’s fourth-largest wireless operator, with support from AT&T, the CTIA and numerous others, maintains that significant signal interference would occur against existing AWS-1 networks if startup M2Z Networks wins the planned auction.

M2Z intends to offer nationwide mobile WiMAX service free of charge.

On Oct. 8, FCC officials said any such interference can be overcome by existing technology and that a vote to authorize the auction can proceed in the near future.

T-Mobile’s Kathleen Ham, v.p. of regulatory affairs says “we’re obviously very disappointed with those results. The FCC takes all this time and effort and lo and behold, they come up with the exact same results they came up with back in May. The FCC chairman made up his mind but there are still four other commissioners T-Mobile will use all options at its disposal to fight this as far as we have to.”

Ham added that the companies and organizations against the AWS-3 auction will file a joint letter very soon, similar to a Sep. 10 letter objecting to the recent findings. If the FCC still votes in favor of the auction, then the objecting parties will consider nothing less than legal action, she said.

There is also the strong possibility of issue reconsideration by different FCC leadership under the next U.S. president, she noted.

T-Mobile also continues to suggest that any AWS-3 auction winner should use a technique called asymmetrical pairing, which advocates say would completely prevent any interference and more efficiently use all available spectrum.

To this day, M2Z hasn't commented on that suggestion.

M2Z’s claim that T-Mobile USA and the other wireless incumbents are simply trying to prevent a free service offering is totally false, Ham added.

T-Mobile is too busy competing against bigger companies like AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel, plus dozens of smaller wireless providers, and needs the clean AWS-1 network for its own 3G investment, not to keep out other companies, she said.

M2Z probably chose to seek the AWS-3 spectrum instead of the recently available 700 MHz spectrum because the AWS could be obtained for a lower cost, Ham said.

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Source: T-Mobile USA.