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On August 16th, AT&T filed a petition to deny SpaceX's waiver request that would allow SpaceX to operate from space on T-Mobile's PCS G channels. From the Web Spectrum Viewer map below, it is evident that T-Mobile controls nationwide access to the PCS G channel except for some places in Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma where they are leasing those channels to regional carriers.
Spectrum Depth Map - T-Mobile (PCS-G):
| Carrier | Counties Owned | % of Counties | Population Sum | % of Population |
| T-Mobile | 1399 | 40.1%` | 184,121,282 | 54.6% |
| AT&T | 915 | 28.3% | 66,836,869 | 19.8% |
| Verizon | 631 | 19.5% | 72,904,442 | 21.6% |
| USCellular | 134 | 4.1% | 6,613,176 | 2.0% |
| Viaero | 84 | 2.6% | 1,172,483 | 0.3% |
| C Spire | 32 | 1.0% | 1,087,192 | 0.3% |
T-Mobile made commitments to the FCC in the Memorandum Opinion and Order in their application for their Auction 108 (2.5 GHz Band Licenses). T-Mobile committed to divest by sale or swap, 20 MHz of spectrum in the AWS-1, AWS3, PCS, or 2.5GHz bands. The spectrum sold will be no smaller than 10 MHz blocks of TDD spectrum or 5x5 MHz blocks of FDD (paired) spectrum. T-Mobile has twelve months to file the transfer applications.
The FCC specifically called out two CMA markets where T-Mobile will need to divest spectrum: CMA385 - Kauai and CMA386 - Maui. Although T-Mobile's held spectrum in Hawaii doesn't stand out compared to other markets in the US, the issue with the spectrum screen in Hawaii is that 3.45 GHz spectrum (100 MHz) and C-band spectrum (280 MHz) are not available. This reduces the available spectrum by almost 400 MHz, thus reducing the spectrum screen by potentially 126 MHz.
In the above map, the CMA markets in Hawaii are indicated. To see how each carriers spectrum totals up in each of these markets we will utilize our Web Spectrum Viewer - Spectrum Depth Module. First we have exported the county spectrum totals by band classification. Kalawao and Maui county make up CMA 386 and Kauai county makes up CMA385. The bottom 3 counties in the chart below represent the counties where T-Mobile needs to divest 20 MHz of spectrum.
Reviewing the data, it is clear that T-Mobile's lower mid-band spectrum and upper mid-band spectrum are the two areas where T-Mobile has a sizable advantage. I assume that EBS/BRS spectrum is off the table from T-Mobile's perspective and it would be difficult to sell that band due to T-Mobile's nationwide "exclusive" use.
Looking then at the lower mid-band spectrum, T-Mobile's held spectrum in both the AWS-1 and AWS-3 bands is pretty similar with Verizon and AT&T.
I will also note that if T-Mobile was to give up any of their AWS-1/AWS-3 spectrum holdings they would drop below their desired 20MHz channel in NR band 66.
There are two considerations for T-Mobile's PCS spectrum. First, T-Mobile controls two blocks of spectrum in all of the Hawaii counties, 15 MHz at the bottom of the band and 20 MHz at the top. I believe that T-Mobile's agreement with SpaceX utilizes the PCS G channels at the top of the PCS band, so I think the upper block will be retained. In a perfect world, T-Mobile would sell a 10x10 slice (A8-A11) of their lower block of spectrum to Verizon and swap their A6-A7 spectrum with Verizon for Verizon's F1-F2 spectrum. In this scenario, Verizon would increase their channel size in two of these counties from 10/10 to 20/20 and in Kauai they would have 25/25. T-Mobile would then have all of their spectrum together and could have a NR band 25 - 20MHz channel and a dedicated 5 MHz channel for SpaceX.
Add your thoughts to our LinkedIn post or the post on X.
The recent news highlighting a FCC proceeding into the spectrum screen referenced, some analysis by Raymond James establishing T-Mobile dominance with 350MHz of spectrum on average in the nation's top markets.
To see how that plays out on a market by market basis, I am going to use the spectrum screen analysis data from Spektrum Metric's Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool which details the spectrum that applies to the screen for all of the US counties or for all of the US Cellular Market Areas (CMA). The chart below is for the Top 49 CMA markets by population (2021 estimated population). The markets are sorted from highest population on the left to the lowest population on the right. I have eliminated San Juan, PR because the national carrier's don't have a consistent investment strategy for many of the US territories including Puerto Rico.
Previously we looked at US Cellular's Spectrum Ownership via Spektrum Metrics Map Views. In this post, we will utilize Spektrum Metrics' Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool to evaluate how USCellular's low band spectrum will fit with the other national carriers. In the County Analysis tab, we can see each carrier's total spectrum and the amount of low band spectrum. In this view we used the autofilters to select only the counties where USCellular has spectrum. This allows us to see how each of the national carriers spectrum assets compare in the counties where they can acquire spectrum from USCellular. This view reveals that USCellular has very limited overall spectrum in the largest markets. They have 20MHz of spectrum in one of the Boston CMA counties, and 12MHz in most of the St. Louis counties.
When we look at the frequency band information in the same analysis tab, we can see the counties where USCellular's low band spectrum includes cellular spectrum. We can also see whether AT&T or Verizon is missing cellular spectrum in a county where USCellular's spectrum would fill a need. Cellular spectrum is critical to both Verizon and AT&T because they have anchored their low band 5G coverage on that spectrum. To evaluate the strategic plan for USCellular's cellular spectrum further, we are going to copy the data from this table into another Excel tab for further analysis.
Next we want to analyze which counties Verizon would like to acquire the USCellular cellular spectrum, which counties AT&T would like to acquire, and which counties they both would want, meaning neither carrier has cellular spectrum. After determining which counties align with Verizon and those that align with AT&T, we will calculate the MHz-POPs that each carrier would likely acquire. When we bring the county data over, we leave the column that includes the 2021 population for each county along with the appropriate spectrum depth columns.. After identifying the counties where there is a clear desire from AT&T or Verizon for the cellular spectrum, we can calculate the MHz-POPs for each carriers desired acquisition by multiplying the population by the spectrum depth in the "New" columns.
In our cellular MHz-POPs analysis, below, subtotals for spectrum Verizon would acquire, AT&T would acquire, and the spectrum that could be acquired by either company are listed.
| Carrier | Desired MHz-POPs (Cellular) |
| Verizon | 214,164,150 |
| AT&T | 424,149,500 |
| Either | 34,827,725 |
The news that TDS is exploring "strategic alternatives" for USCellular has created a heightened interest in how our spectrum ownership tools can be used to breakdown the components of USCellular's spectrum to highlight where they would create the most synergies for the remaining wireless carriers.
I want to initially look at the cellular bands, since both AT&T and Verizon are utilizing the cellular bands for their low band 5G. From the Spectrum Depth Maps below you can see that there are areas in both carrier's footprints that lack a true 5G coverage strategy.
Verizon:
AT&T:
Now, looking at the USCellular map, it is clear that USCellular is the primary cellular licensee after AT&T and Verizon.
USCellular:
It is also helpful to look at our Spectrum Ownership Maps to see how USCellular's spectrum aligns with the two cellular licenses (A and B). Our Spectrum Ownership Maps show the primary licensee for each channel for every county and territory in the United States. Each county that a national carrier controls is color-coded with their branding colors.
Cellular A:
The Cellular A map indicates that there are counties in Washington, Oregon, and Northern California that fit perfectly with the overall AT&T A band licenses. Note: the white counties are controlled by various smaller carriers which can be identified by "flying" over the county in our Web Spectrum Viewer Mapping Module.
Cellular B:
The Cellular B map indicates the counties in Washington and Oregon that would be a natural fit with Verizon's B channel licenses.
Our next blog with utilize some of the tabular analysis functions from the Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool starting with an assignment of each cellular county to AT&T or Verizon, concluding with a MHz-POPs quantity for the acquisition of USCellular's cellular spectrum.
On Friday, the FCC posted the results from Auction 110. On Saturday we updated the January 2021 release of our Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool to reflect the auction results. These results provide the most detailed view of each carrier's spectrum that can be deployed for 5G, particularly all of the available upper mid-band spectrum including EBS/BRS, 3.45GHz, CBRS, and C-band.
In the Spectrum Grid, we can see the channel allocations. In general, Dish took the upper end of the band with T-Mobile and AT&T alternate having the lower parts of the band. In many markets, AT&T is pinned in the middle of the band between T-Mobile, Grain, and Columbia Capital. Each of the spectrum investors has selected spectrum assignments adjacent to AT&T's spectrum meaning they are each well positioned to sell to AT&T if the 3.45GHz spectrum cap is lifted.
In the National Band Ownership slides we look at each carrier's ownership based upon the percent of MHz-POPs that they control.
For the 3.45GHz band, AT&T leads the way with 39% of the MHz-POPs, Dish has 30%, T-Mobile has 12%, and USCellular has 4%.
Looking the the complete picture for Upper Mid-band spectrum, T-Mobile still leads with 34%, Verizon follows with 30%, then AT&T with 24%. Dish has 9% of the upper mid-band MHz-POPs and USCellular has 2%.
On July 23rd, the FCC granted most of the C-band (Auction 107) licenses. This provided us the first opportunity to see how the FCC was going to handle the interim A block licenses that will transition into the permanent license on December 31, 2023. The FCC provided call signs for each of the permanent licenses as well as call signs for each of AT&T's interim licenses.
These interim and future designations allow us to highlight a unique capability of our Web Spectrum Viewer and Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool. For each block of spectrum we capture the spectrum licensee and the carrier that may lease the spectrum. This information indicates the current operator. Typically the current operator is the future operator, unless a pending transaction allocates that spectrum block to a different operator. We are using this database capability to reflect the interim C-band licenses with the current operator field and the permanent operator with the future operator field. You can see the AT&T interim allocations below as we are displaying the "Current" Spectrum Ownership Grid.
Current View:
The future allocations are seen in the Future View below.
Future View:
Another way that this current and future ownership data can be seen is in our Spectrum Survey. The Spectrum Survey provides the call sign, current operator, and future operator for all of the frequency bands in a selected county.
Spectrum Survey:
The 10 highest bidders in the CBRS auction are shown in the table below. How did each of these bidders' investments translate into the percent of the their ownership within the CBRS band?
In our Frequency Band Ownership chart from our updated Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool, you can see the relative ownership percentages based upon each bidders total MHz-POPs in the CBRS band. Clearly the top 5 bidders turned their investment into a significant share of the CBRS band.
Last week we began to see announcements from the FCC authorizing a series of temporary spectrum usage agreements to provide additional spectrum to several of the wireless operators to increase network capacity as workers are dispatched to their homes.
We will look at the effect of these agreements in a few markets to see how they are increasing LTE capacity. The analysis will be supported with outputs from our Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool specifically the Spectrum Ownership Grid.
T-Mobile 600MHz Capacity Expansion:
The first agreement provides T-Mobile with access to 600MHz spectrum from Bluewater Wireless, Channel 51 LIcense Co and LB License Co (Columbia Capital), CC Wireless Investment (Comcast), ParketB.com Wireless (Dish), New Level (Grain), and Tstar License Holdings (Tri-Star).
In the image below for the New York CMA market, T-Mobile will have access to Comcast's spectrum (XFI) and Dish's spectrum increasing their 600MHz channel size in New York from 10MHz channel to a 20MHz channel. T-Mobile would have access to the entire 35MHz of spectrum so they could provide a 20MHz channel and a 10MHz channel for capacity. Because T-Mobile has already deployed Band 71 equipment in New York, they can turn up the expanded spectrum without additional equipment installations.
USCellular AWS-3 Capacity Expansion:
The next agreement provides USCellular access to AWS-3 spectrum from their bidding partner Advantage Spectrum. In the image below a few of the Washington markets where USCellular will access AWS-3 spectrum are indicated. In most of these markets, USCellular currently operates on their cellular frequencies but doesn't have Band 66 operations.Thus, USCellular will need to add base stations and antennas to their sites for Band 66 to utilize these new frequencies. In five of these counties USCellular is likely operating on AWS-1 spectrum in Band 66 so the spectrum will be easier to deploy in those counties.
Verizon AWS-3 Capacity Expansion:
In the image below we illustrate the AWS-3 spectrum that Verizon will gain temporary access from SNR License Co and Northstar Wireless (both Dish partners). Northstar controls the AWS-3 G channel and SNR LIcense Co controls the AWS-3 H channel. In the New York market, Northstar Wireless owns the G block spectrum and SNR Wireless owns the H block spectrum. Accessing this spectrum will provide Verizon a second Band 66 LTE channel, increasing their LTE capacity from 20MHz to 30MHz.
Verizon & AT&T AWS-3 Capacity Expansion:
Verizon and AT&T have also requested access to the spectrum that Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless returned to the FCC when their auction discounts were eliminated. The AWS-3 spectrum depth that is "unassigned" is indicated in the map below. In our data, we reflect these unassigned licenses with the FCC heading.
AT&T requested the I block spectrum in the New York market, so it will expand their Band 66 LTE from 10MHz to 15MHz. The markets AT&T requested are listed here and the markets that Verizon requested are here.
AT&T AWS-4 Capacity Expansion:
AT&T has also requested access to Dish's Band 66 spectrum. From the image above AT&T can expand their Band 66 LTE by and additional 5MHz to 20MHz by using part of Dish's AWS-4 spectrum. AT&T will still have an additional 15MHz of Dish's spectrum that they could use as an additional LTE channel in New York. AT&T only requested access to Dish's Band 66 spectrum, not their Band 70 AWS-4 spectrum.
AT&T 700MHz E-block Expansion:
Dish also reported that AT&T requested access the the 700MHz E-block in the markets that AT&T doesn't own. In the image below, Dish's ownership in Chicago and Detroit will provide AT&T the capability to expand their Band 29 supplemental downlink from 5MHz to 10MHz.
Earlier this month, Verizon filed to acquire all of Orion Wireless' paired AWS-3 spectrum. This is Verizon's third acquisition of AWS-3 spectrum in the last six months. Last year Verizon filed to acquire AWS-3 spectrum from Cypress Cellular and Blue Ridge Wireless.
Geographic Coverage:
The map below depicts all of Orion Wireless' AWS-3 licenses. 15 of Orion Wireless' licenses are for the AWS-3 G block and one for the AWS-3 I block. This acquisition provides Verizon an additional 10 MHz of spectrum (5x5) in the in the areas where only Orion only controlled one license and 20 MHz of spectrum in two Minnesota counties where they control both the G and I blocks.
It is also interesting to look at how this spectrum will fit with Verizon's existing Band 66 spectrum. Below is an output from our Spectrum Grid where you can see all of Orion Wireless' spectrum (OWL). In most counties, the spectrum is not contiguous with Verizon's existing spectrum assignments, but in 5 Iowa counties, the Orion Wireless spectrum will provide Verizon with a larger second LTE channel ranging from 10 to 15 MHz.
Spektrum Metrics Insights & Analytics is pleased to announce that our Millimeter Wave - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool has been updated with the Auction 103 results and is available for purchase.
Below is a sample of the Spectrum Grid Analysis Module, highlighting the 37/39 GHz spectrum ownership for the New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago CMA markets.
The Millimeter Wave - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool contains 20 additional analysis modules including:
With our Web Spectrum Viewer subscription, maps for each carrier's total Millimeter Wave spectrum depth and their spectrum depth for each frequency band are available. Below is a map for the 47GHz spectrum that Sprint won in Auction 103.
Click here to contact Spektrum Metrics Insights & Analytics.
Last week, Verizon filed to acquire 2 Lightspeed's 28 GHz spectrum assets. This is the 8th acquisition that Verizon has filed, targeting the 28 GHz spectrum held by companies prior to Auction 102. The map below depicts where 2 Lightspeed owns spectrum. Verizon is only acquiring the L1 and L2 (850 MHz) for the counties highlighted in orange, leaving 2 Lightspeed with 300 MHz of LMDS A spectrum in these counties. In the yellow counties, 2 Lightspeed still will own the 150 MHz of the LMDS B spectrum. These allocations are detailed below from our Millimeter Wave - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool, Company Analysis Module.
One of the benefits of Allnet Insights' Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tools, is the repository of monthly releases that we have accumulated. With the USA Mobile Carrier Tool we have monthly versions going back to July 2012. Each of our historical tools details spectrum ownership and the variety of spectrum depth analysis modules that were supported at that time.
I thought it would be interesting to look back at the spectrum ownership landscape from July 2012. Looking first at our Spectrum Grid for low band spectrum, you can see that Verizon still holds the 700MHz B block licenses that were sold later to AT&T. In addition, Verizon also holds the 700MHz A block licenses that were sold to T-Mobile.
Looking next at the lower mid band spectrum, former licensees like SpectrumCo, Leap Wireless, and MetroPCS still control blocks of AWS-1 and PCS spectrum. This view of spectrum ownership also allows you to see how Verizon consolidated their AWS-1 spectrum holdings with SpectrumCo's holdings into a 20 MHz block through spectrum license trades with T-Mobile and their MetroPCS licenses. Today Verizon controls the lower 20 MHz of the AWS-1 band and T-Mobile controls the upper 25 MHz in the New York / New Jersey counties.
Looking at the upper mid band spectrum we first see all of the original WCS spectrum licensees: Horizon Wi-Com, Nextwave, Sprint, Comcast, and San Diego Gas & Electric. Clearwire also appears in the upper mid band Spectrum Grid with their 2.5GHz spectrum holdings.
It is interesting then to look at our County Analysis module to see the detail on each carrier's spectrum depth. It is noteworthy to mention that Verizon has 119 MHz of spectrum in most of the New York / New Jersey counties with AT&T trailing with 91 MHz of spectrum. Verizon still sits with rough the same amount of spectrum although they replaced all of the 700MHz spectrum they sold to AT&T and T-Mobile with SpectrumCo spectrum and AWS-3 spectrum while AT&T has growth while AT&T has grown their spectrum depth in the same counties to 161 MHz.
Yesterday, Verizon filed to acquire all of Blue Ridge Wireless' paired AWS-3 spectrum. This is Verizon's second acquisition of AWS-3 spectrum in the last two months. Last month Verizon filed to acquire AWS-3 spectrum from Cypress Cellular. Let's look at the details for the Blue Ridge Wireless purchase with Allnet's Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tools. We will look at the geographic coverage in our Web Spectrum Viewer - Mapping Module, MHz-POPs and Licensed POPs in our Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool.
Geographic Coverage:
The map below depicts all of Blue Ridge Wireless' AWS-3 licenses. Verizon is only purchasing Blue Ridge's paired spectrum licenses, leaving the uplink only spectrum (A1 and B1) with Blue Ridge.
Licensed Population:
In the graphic below, we show the amount of the US population, that each channel of Blue Ridge's AWS-3 spectrum licenses can reach. Clearly, the A1/B1 uplink channels represent the majority of the licensed population Blue Ridge controls. The collection of G channel licenses reach 2.6 million people.
MHz-POPs:
From our MHz-POPs summary below, Blue Ridge Wireless licenses represent 108 million MHz-POPs. This includes their paired and unpaired spectrum. The Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool also includes a detailed MHz-POPs module highlighting the MHz-POPs controlled in each county by frequency band.
Last week, Verizon filed applications to acquire the 28GHz (LMDS) spectrum held by two additional companies; Sunshine LMDS and Virginia Tech Foundation. We are using our recently released, Web Spectrum Viewer - Mapping Module to illustrate the spectrum owned by each of these companies. As with Verizon's other recent 28GHz acquisitions these transactions involve the Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS) spectrum that was owned prior to Auction 101. The first map below illustrates the license area for Sunshine LMDS. Verizon is only acquiring the L1 and L2 channel spectrum from Sunshine LMDS. The spectrum depths on the map indicate that Sunshine controls the L1/L2 channels (850MHz) and the remaining A block LMDS channels (300MHz). The county detail for Sunshine's spectrum is indicated in the second map.
Sunshine LMDS:
Sunshine LMDS - County Detail:
The second transaction involves Virginia Tech Foundation. In this transaction, Verizon is acquiring rights to both the L1/L2 channels as well as the remaining A block LMDS spectrum. In the county detail map, the counties where Virginia Tech only controls the L1/L2 channels are visible in light tan color, while the markets where they also control the remaining A block LMDS channels are in a dark tan. The FCC controls the remaining A block LMDS channels in the counties where Virginia Tech Foundation only controls the L1/L2 channels.
Virginia Tech Foundation:
Virginia Tech Foundation - County Detail:
This week Verizon filed to acquire 40 AWS-3 licenses from Cypress Cellular. I thought this would give us a good opportunity to gain strategic insights into how this acquisition fits with Verizon's existing spectrum portfolio.
First up, a national map of Cypress Cellular's AWS-3 spectrum. Most counties have 10MHz of paired spectrum (5x5) while 3 counties have 20MHz of paired spectrum (10x10).
To see how Cypress Cellular's channels fit with Verizon's existing AWS-1 and AWS-3 spectrum, we use the Spectrum Grid modules from the Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool. To find all of the counties where Cypress control AWS-3 spectrum, we auto filter on Cypress's 3 character code (CYC). This allows us to see that on the counties displayed, Cypress owns the G block channels. It also allows us to determine if the spectrum is contiguous with any other Verizon spectrum and whether Verizon has any other AWS-3 in that county. In the Florida counties shown, Verizon will increase the LTE channel size in the AWS-3 band from 10MHz to 15MHz with this acquisition.
Another way we can evaluate this acquisition is to look at the county spectrum depths in the County Analysis Module. From this data, we can see that Verizon lacks AWS-3 spectrum in most of the counties shown in this view. In some counties Verizon will have a total of 30MHz of spectrum after the transaction closes. All of this analysis focuses on 36 of the 191 counties involved in this transaction.
This month, millimeter wave spectrum licenses have begun to trade again. Both USCellular and Verizon have filed to acquire multiple licenses from several carriers as depicted on the maps below:
Note: All of these licenses were held prior to Auction 101.
With Verizon's announcement last week concerning 5G NFL stadiums, we decided to look at Verizon's 28GHz spectrum allocations, using the Millimeter Wave - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool, to determine the 5GNR channel sizes they could offer in each market. As seen below, Verizon launched stadiums in 4 markets where they are limited to 200MHz channels, while the remaining stadiums are in markets with the full allotment of 400MHz. It would be interesting to know if Verizon has a more restricted demo in the 200MHz markets or whether the full demo exposes the capacity limitations of those markets.
2x200MHz Channels |
2x400MHz Channels |
|
New York |
Carolina |
Houston |
Detroit |
Minnesota |
Denver |
Miami |
Seattle |
Indianapolis |
New England |
Baltimore |
Chicago |
Late last year, AT&T began to discuss refarming their low-band spectrum for 5G, but they didn't indicate which of their low band spectrum blocks would be used. With some spectrum acquisitions that have been filed over the last 6 months, I believe their plans are becoming more clear. The 3 blocks of low band spectrum that AT&T controls are 700MHz (A,B, and C channels), 700MHz (FirstNet), and the Cellular (A & B channels). I am going to assume that the FirstNet spectrum is not being considered since it must support public safety networks, leaving the 700MHz and Cellular bands for refarming. The first indicator, was AT&T's acquisition of FBS 700's spectrum in South Dakota and their acquisition of part of C Spire's 700MHz spectrum in the southeast.
To see AT&T's total 700MHz spectrum, we used Allnet Insights' Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool to total AT&T's ownership of the 700MHz A, B, and C channels in each US county. In the counties where they own all three channels, they could deploy a 15MHz 5G channel. From the map below, it appears that AT&T would cover most of the US with a 10MHz 5G channel.
The next map highlights the counties where AT&T controls both cellular channels (A & B). In the limited markets where they control both channels (Texas and Florida), they could have a 5G channel size of 20MHz, but for most of the country that would be limited to a 10MHz 5G channel size. It is important to remember that the areas where AT&T doesn't control any cellular spectrum the bands are controlled by USCellular and/or Verizon, making cellular spectrum acquisitions unlikely.
Another important way to evaluate the usefulness of each band is to measure the amount of population that can be reach with the licenses in each band. To evaluate this we used the Licensed POPs Analysis Module from the Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool. Since AT&T's 700MHz spectrum covers 44 million addition people compared to AT&T's Cellular spectrum, I believe that AT&T is planning to utilize their 700MHz spectrum for their upcoming Low Band 5G deployments. This appears to be confirmed by AT&T's recent acquisitions.
