Changes in the 28 GHz Landscape Thu, Dec 12, 2024

In late November, Mike Dano highlighted that T-Mobile had cancelled over 500 millimeter wave licenses where they didn't want to meet the buildout obligations. Upon investigating the cancelled licenses further, we found that all of the cancelled licenses were 28 GHz licenses. It would seem that the 28 GHz licenses would be more difficult to meet the covered population criteria for substantial service since each of the licenses are for individual counties. The other millimeter wave licenses are PEA market licenses, providing at least one population dense county where a significant portion of the PEA population can be served.

To see the collective effect of these license cancelations we are going to look at the 28 GHz licenses that were in FCC control before T-Mobile cancelled their slew of licenses. Our database management process for the Web Spectrum Viewer and Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool allow us to assign cancelled licenses to the FCC. The FCC ULS system doesn't allow unissued license areas to be queried, and cancelled licenses are also difficult to identify.

In the map below, the 28 GHz licenses in FCC control are displayed. Most of the license areas are low population counties that didn't receive bids in the 28 GHz auction.

To quantify the licenses in the FCC's control before T-Mobile's license cancelation we will look at the Licensed Population metric. Before T-Mobile cancelled some of their 28 GHz licenses, the FCC already controlled licenses covering over 27 million people.

The map below shows the 28 GHz licenses now in the FCC inventory. Comparing the before and after maps in can be seen that all of the before licenses were full 425 MHz channels. The red areas in the after map represent the partial license areas that T-Mobile gave back to the FCC. This map also shows all of the additional areas that the FCC controls.

Looking at the Licensed Population analysis, we can see that the licenses that the FCC controls now cover over 100 million people.

Peak Throughput (Mbps) on Upper Mid-band Spectrum Thu, Nov 14, 2024

In our previous post on Upper Mid-band Spectrum we looked at T-Mobile's upper mid-band spectrum advantage (in most markets) compared to Verizon or AT&T by looking at each carrier's relative Upper Mid-band spectrum depth measured in MHz for each county.

Looking at spectrum depth is fine for engineering and strategy folks, but customers are primarily focused on speed which means we need to also look at throughput which is measured in Mbps. To analyze the peak throughput, we are going to use our Web Spectrum Viewer - Channel Analysis module. The Channel Analysis examines a carrier's available spectrum to determine the largest 3GPP channels that the carrier can create with the spectrum in each New Radio (NR) band class. The Web Spectrum Viewer then associates a peak throughput for each 3GPP channel size assuming 4x4 MIMO antennas, 256 QAM (modulation), and an downlink to uplink ratio of 75%.

In the first example below for AT&T in King County, WA; we can see that AT&T has two channels available in N77. N77 includes the 3.45GHz, CBRS, and C-band frequencies. AT&T has a 80 MHz channel of C-band and a 40 MHz channel of 3.45GHz, providing a peak throughput per sector of 1380 Mbps and 674 Mbps, relatively. This is referred to as a peak throughput value because it would require all devices to be close enough to the cell site so they would be operating at 256 QAM. Devices operating at lower modulation would effectively decrease the peak throughput from the maximum.

AT&T Upper Mid-band Spectrum Peak Throughput:

Verizon's C-band spectrum provides both a 100 MHz channel and a 60 MHz channel while their CBRS spectrum also provides two channels, a 20 MHz channel and a 10 MHz channel. The peak throughput values for each of Verizon's 3GPP channels is as follows: 1736 Mbps, 1030 Mbps, 324 Mbps, and 153 Mbps. As a reminder, the carriers utilize carrier aggregation to combine each of these individual channels into one data pipe.

Verizon Upper Mid-band Spectrum Peak Throughput:

T-Mobile's 2.5GHz spectrum provides both a 100 MHz channel and a 90 MHz channel while their C-band spectrum also provides a 40 MHz channel. The peak throughput values for each of T-Mobile's 3GPP channels is as follows: 1736 Mbps, 1558 Mbps, and 674 Mbps. As a reminder, the carriers utilize carrier aggregation to combine each of these individual channels into one data pipe.

T-Mobile Upper Mid-band Spectrum Peak Throughput:

The table below summarizes the peak throughput that would be available to sector on each carrier's network. To put T-Mobile's throughput advantage into concrete numbers, the additional 776 Mbps that T-Mobile has available in each sector would allow them to have nearly 40 addition mobile customers per sector, assuming each of those mobile customers averaged 20 Mbps.

Upper Mid-band Spectrum Peak Throughput Summary:

County	T-Mobile	Verizon	AT&T
King, WA	4.019 Gbps	3.243 Gbps	2.054 Gbps

T-Mobile's Upper Mid-band Spectrum Advantage Tue, Oct 29, 2024

Last month the FCC opened a docket to collect comments regarding AT&T's petition to have the FCC establish an upper mid-band spectrum enhanced review before secondary market transaction can be approved. This is effectively an upper mid-band spectrum screen because AT&T has requested that the enhanced review include spectrum resources between 2.5GHz and 6GHz rather than starting at 1 GHz which is the typical cutover for "mid-band spectrum". Although it is not stated, this petition is driven by T-Mobile's accumulation of 2.5GHz spectrum and some of the recent reports of network quality issues for the carriers relying on C-band spectrum.

The maps below we compare T-Mobile's available upper mid-band spectrum that is currently available to deploy to both AT&T and Verizon.. Based upon their latest earnings call, T-Mobile is not currently deploying any C-band spectrum so the Current Situation maps below entirely reflect their 2.5GHz spectrum. In the maps below, T-Mobile's upper mid-band spectrum advantage is indicated with the blue regions and AT&T's advantage is indicated in white. AT&T's upper mid-band spectrum includes their 3.45GHz and C-band frequencies.

When we compared Verizon's upper mid-band spectrum to T-Mobile, we only included their C-band spectrum resources because reports indicate Verizon's CBRS spectrum is not being used for mobility deployments.

The only change for the Future Situation maps was to include T-Mobile's C-band spectrum along with their 2.5GHz spectrum. This contributes typically 40MHz of spectrum over most of the metro market areas.

How Many Spectrum Licenses are Changing Hands? Mon, Sep 30, 2024

The answer to this question provides a view into how dynamic the spectrum landscape is in a particular country and for this exercise, we are focused on the United States Mobile Carrier landscape covering 600 MHz to 4 GHz.

We are going to look at the changes in an 8 month time period by comparing the ownership for each frequency block in each county. In total, our Spectrum Grid breaks the Mobile Carrier spectrum into 210 individual blocks of spectrum for each county.

In the table below the total blocks changed are displayed by NR frequency band.

Band	n71	n12	n26	n66	n41	n77
Blocks Changed	108	158	18,304	1,502	3,048	266

Two different events explain the top 2 affected bands. First, our analysis time period overlapped with Dish's decision to not purchase the 800 MHz SMR spectrum, thus it changed hands back to T-Mobile. Second, T-Mobile was finally granted their Auction 108 licenses so those licenses changed hands from FCC control to T-Mobile.

Outside of these two events, it is clear that a significant number of licenses changed hands in the analyzed time period. Knowing which licenses are changing hands in which markets will change the engineering solutions and configurations for all of the radio frequency systems in these markets. If your business doesn't track those changes, you will be making business and engineering decisions with incomplete or erroneous data.

Interference to PCS Channels from SpaceX Tue, Aug 27, 2024

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):

AT&T indicted that modifying the out of band emissions would affect their operations on the channels they operate adjacent to the G block. As a reminder, the C11 channel indicated in the Spectrum Grid below, is the adjacent channel to the 5MHz G block channel (G1/G2) that SpaceX wants to operate on.

Spectrum Grid:

To see the the see the carrier that could receive the interference that AT&T is modeling, we can look at a Spectrum Ownership Map from our Web Spectrum Viewer. The Spectrum Ownership Map shows the owner (or lessee) of the C11 channel for every US county highlighted with each national or regional carrier's branding colors. The white areas represent smaller carriers. In the Web Spectrum Viewer you can place your mouse over each of the county areas to see the county name and the controlling carrier As the map reveals, T-Mobile is the adjacent band operator in many of the counties as they indicated in their response to opposition filing.

Spectrum Ownership Map:

The table below highlights the number of counties that the Top 6 carriers that own the PCS C11 channel adjacent to the PCS G block. This table utilized tabular spectrum ownership data from our Spectrum Grid along with the estimated 2022 population for each county from the same tool.

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%

From this data, we can see that T-Mobile would be subjecting itself to interference in 40.1% of the US counties, over a population that is greater than 1/2 the US population. At this time we don't know the detail on which PCS licenses that USCellular has agreed to sell to T-Mobile so they are evaluated separately, knowing that those counties could be added to T-Mobile's self interference category. AT&T would be affected in 28.3% of US counties impacting roughly 66 million people.

How is Canada using the S-band (AWS-4) Spectrum? Tue, Jul 23, 2024

In the United States, Dish controls the S-band spectrum (2000-2020MHz and 2180-2200MHz). Originally the upper band was allocated as downlink spectrum and the low band was allocated as uplink spectrum using NR Band 23. Dish petitioned the FCC to allow downlink operations on both bands creating 40MHz of downlink spectrum. To enable this, Dish needed to provide a guard band between its lower band (2000-2020MHz) and the PCS G channel, which was accomplished with their purchase of the H block channel in Auction 96.

Because of the critical downlink bandwidth that this spectrum provides Dish in the United States, it is important to see what Dish's customer's will encounter with this band when visiting Canada.

The first thing to notice for the Canadian spectrum allocation is that the "PCS H" channel has not be allocated, but the S band spectrum is still allocated as paired spectrum using NR Band 23.

In Canada Terrestar is the licensed owner of the S band spectrum but they lease the spectrum in many Tier 4 service areas (similar to large counties) to three of the Canadian wireless carriers. With Telus and the Bell Mobility/Telus joint venture, they are only leasing the downlink portion of the spectrum. For Telus in some of the Alberta (AB) service areas below, this provides a 30MHz downlink channel in NR Band 66 and the Bell Mobility/Telus JV can utilize the same configuration in most of the Ontario (ON) services areas.

Xplore represents the other leasing arrangement with Terrestar. Xplorent leases both the uplink and downlink bands indicating operation as a 20MHz FDD channel in NR Band 23.

Next we are going to look at how much of Canada's population has each of these configurations available using Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool (CAN) Licensed Population module.

From the charts below the licensed population is seen for Terrestar, Xplore, Telus, and the Bell Mobility/Telus JV.

How do I find License Areas for a new EBS White Space Licenses? Tue, Jul 16, 2024

When the EBS Auction was held, auction participants had to negotiate a maze of licensing contours to determine the license area that they would receive with a successful bid.

This complexity increased when the FCC combined multiple channels (which likely have different contours) to form the wide band auction channels. As a reminder, the subchannels of the C1 auction channel are pictured below.

To determine the license areas for your white space channel deployment, you can use the Web Spectrum Viewer to see our understanding of each white space area. Our white spaces areas have already remove the established 35 mile radius licenses and the Tribal licenses areas that were granted before the white space areas were created.

In the EBS Auction module, the license county is selected first in the EBSBRS Pops menu. This view displays the population available in the white space area for each C1 auction channel. Looking at the output for Bibb County, Alabama; we can see that 12, 173 people are in the license area for all of the A channels, and B channels. The C channels don't have any people in the white space area so the auction winner cannot put towers or allow RF signals to propagate on the C channels in this county.

Clicking on the EBSA1 population cell reveals a white space license area map for the A1 channel. The yellow white space contour can be saved either as a jpeg map or as a kml file for Google Earth.

Mexico Introduces Partial Area Licenses in their Next Spectrum Auction Tue, May 14, 2024

On May 7th, Mexico's Federal Institute of Telecommunications (IFT) announced a Public Consultation for their next spectrum auction. The consultation process will run for 20 days until 6/3/2024. In this consultation they have introduced a new licensing framework (APS) that makes spectrum available in much more regional areas. Prior to this realignment, most of the licenses were either national or issued on PCS or Cellular market areas which divided the country into roughly similar 9 regions.

Below are the Partial Area Markets are indicated along with the included municipios (counties).

Along with the new market boundaries, the IFT has included all of the spectrum returned by Telefonica, the spectrum that was not purchased in the last auction, and two bands of spectrum not previously auctioned.

Available Spectrum:

Name	Frequency Band	Proposed Configuration	Market
600 MHz	614-698 MHz	5 blocks - 5x5 MHz	APS
		1 block - 10x10 MHz	National
L Band	1427-1518 MHz	8 blocks - 10MHz (TDD)	National
		2 blocks - 5 MHz (TDD)	Future
800 MHz	814-824/859-869 MHz	2 blocks - 5x5 MHz	APS*
AWS	1755-1760/2155-2160 MHz	1 block - 5x5 MHz	APS
PCS	1850-1915/1930-1995 MHz	4 blocks - 5x5 MHz	APS
		1 block - .8x.8 MHz	APS*
2.5 GHz	2500-2690 MHz	4 blocks - 10 MHz (TDD)	APS

* APS or Partial Markets only apply to unlicensed markets.

These market changes and frequency band changes have been updated in our Mexico - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool and we have added a new APS Market Analysis module to aid in the bid evaluation process, so that existing spectrum holdings can be compiled for each frequency band and each band classification (low, lower mid, and upper mid). This is an important update for US carriers and manufacturers to purchase to understand the technology constraints along the US/Mexico border and to understand the networks and capacity that their customers will experience when traveling in Mexico.

APS (Partial Market) Analysis Module:

Explore the Diverse range of Carrier's Spectrum Assets Instantly Tue, Apr 16, 2024

Have you encountered a new wireless carrier or legacy carrier with complex spectrum assets? How can you validate frequency bands, available markets, and the available business opportunities (POPs), instantly.

One of the lesser know capabilities of Spektrum Metrics' Web Spectrum Viewer is the Licensed Population Analysis. The Licensed Population Analysis displays the population that can be served by a carrier's licenses by band classification or frequency band. Below we have pulled up the National Licensed Population by Band Classification for C Spire (CSP). Many are not familiar with the operation of C Spire including the frequency bands they control, the areas of the country they operate, and how many people they can reach with their licenses.

In looking at the data, we can quickly see that C Spire reaches roughly the same number of people (POPs) with each of the categories of spectrum: Low for coverage, Low Mid for 4G services, and Up Mid for 5G services.

Looking at the Low Band - Licensed Population indicates that although they have all three bands available, the population they can serve with the cellular frequencies is about half the population they can serve with either 600MHz or 700MHz. This is seen geographically in the maps at the bottom of the post.

Looking at the Lower Mid Band - Licensed Population indicates that C Spire's PCS is their largest Licensed Population segment reaching 3.5 million people.

In the last Band Classification, Upper Mid Band, C Spire controls EBS/BRS spectrum over a significant amount of their common population while their C-band spectrum covers slightly less.

Next we can use the Mapping Module to see the geographic license areas for each of the band classifications or frequency bands.

Total Spectrum:

Low Band Spectrum:

Cellular Spectrum:

Lower Mid Band Spectrum:

Upper Mid Band Spectrum:

Why is T-Mobile Giving Up Spectrum in Hawaii? Tue, Mar 05, 2024

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.

WIRELESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS BUREAU GRANTS AUCTION 108 LICENSES - T-Mobile Thu, Feb 29, 2024

(DA No. 24-183). Public Notice announcing that certain Auction 108 licenses are granted.

DA-24-183A1.pdf

DA-24-183A2.pdf

DA-24-183A3.pdf

Spectrum Deep Tracks - Dish Spectrum Considerations Wed, Jan 17, 2024

I am excited to announce the launch of Spectrum Deep Tracks - a research series developed in a partnership between SunStone Associates and Spectrum Metrics.

We felt that there was a gap in the market on how to think about spectrum strategically, as an operator might. This encompasses not only the technical aspects, but also competitive strategy, regulatory strategy, and valuation. Operators are not one-dimensional and neither are their views on spectrum.

Spectrum Deep Tracks provides an avenue for Terry Chevalier and myself to engage in complex topics from our collective wireless carrier experiences in auction planning, strategy, corporate development, engineering, operations, and spectrum management. We utilize tools from Spektrum Metrics to provide measurable data in our analysis.

Our first collaboration - "Dish's Spectrum Portfolio - An Overview & Considerations" is available now at the Spektrum Metrics website.

This first, approximately 60 page, paper explores DISH’s primary wireless spectrum bands to help investors, management consultants, and industry leaders understand the regulatory and historical context of each band, the technical considerations in usage, the key owners in the band, and how to consider value. DISH is often in the news and this will give you relevant information at your fingertips to better understand DISH’s moves.

The bands we discuss include:

- 600 MHz

- 700 MHz

- AWS-3

- AWS-H

- AWS-4

- 3.45 GHz

- CBRS

- MVDDS

You can download a free version covering their 700 MHz band here. The full report is available for purchase at Spektrum Metrics website.

What other spectrum topics would you want to know more about? Please comment below this post either in X or LinkedIn.

T-Mobile's 6 Carrier Aggregation and Throughput Tue, Jan 09, 2024

On January 4th, Fierce Wireless posted a story on T-Mobile's six component carrier aggregation test with Ericsson and Qualcomm. 6 Carrier Aggregation, also known as 6CA, is a cutting-edge technology that allows mobile carriers to combine multiple frequency bands to increase network speed and capacity. By aggregating six carriers, T-Mobile can deliver faster download and upload speeds, reduced latency, and improved overall network performance.

What was interesting in the article from a spectrum expert standpoint are the details they included and the details that were left out. Let's first look at the details that were included:

- Merged 6 - 5G channels of mid-band spectrum

- 2 channels of 2.5 GHz spectrum (n41)

- 2 channels of PCS spectrum (n25)

- 2 channel of AWS spectrum (n66)

- Total aggregated spectrum was 245 MHz

- Throughput (speed test) exceeded 3.6 Gbps

I am going to use our current Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool to determine the markets where T-Mobile has two blocks of PCS spectrum, two blocks of AWS spectrum and two blocks of 2.5GHz spectrum.

Using the NR Channel Analysis Module, the specific 3GPP channels that are available for T-Mobile's spectrum in a particular county are displayed by NR band. In the image below, we have filtered to display counties where T-Mobile holds two blocks of n25 spectrum and two blocks of n66 spectrum.

Channel Analysis - FDD Downlink:

This filter also included 2.5 GHz spectrum. I wanted to find counties with both a 100 MHz channel and a 90 MHz channel to get the maximum throughput.

Channel Analysis - TDD:

I'm not quite sure how they arrived at 245 MHz for the combined spectrum. If I only look at the FDD Downlink and the TDD spectrum, I can get 245 MHz with the configuration below.. This configuration is available to T-Mobile in 69 counties.

Channel Size (MHz)	NR Band
100	n41
90	n41
20	n25
10	n25
20	n66
5	n66
245	Total

To get the estimated composite channel throughput values, we have modeled 4x4 MIMO antennas with 256QAM modulation in our Throughput Analysis Tool, which is part of the Channel Analysis Module

Throughput Analysis - FDD Downlink:

Throughput Analysis - TDD Downlink Timeslots:

Throughput Summary:

Channel Size (MHz)	NR Band	Throughput (Gbps)
100	n41	1.736
90	n41	1.558
20	n25	437
10	n25	411
20	n66	556
5	n66	206
245	Total	4.904

Although I ended up with a higher throughput than was achieved in the test call, my throughput values are theoretical and would be reduced by real world conditions such as distance to the cell site and the achievable modulation.

Evaluating the Effects of FCC Spectrum Transactions - Liberty Puerto Rico Fri, Nov 10, 2023

Spektrum Metrics produces a weekly Spectrum Transactions Summary email that details the transactions that were filed that week by wireless carriers at the FCC. Referring to this recent Transactions Summary, I am going to use Spektrum Metrics' Web Spectrum Viewer to investigate the effect of a series of transactions between Liberty and Claro, focused in the US Virgin Islands. In the Transaction Summary email we link the FCC maps for all of the transactions where the licenses are disaggregated. This can be seen in the transaction where part of a 700MHz spectrum license is being assigned from Claro to Liberty. In this case, the 700MHz A block license includes Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. The assignment application is only asking for the US Virgin Island license areas (blue) to be transferred to Liberty.

To evaluate the effects of this transaction I will use the Web Spectrum Viewer to highlight the spectrum ownership changes for each island. First looking at the 700MHz spectrum. Claro's existing spectrum is indicated with PRT and Liberty's spectrum is indicated with LIB. Acquiring Claro's 700MHz A block will increase Liberty's NR Band 12 Uplink and Downlink from 10MHz to 15MHz. This will add approximately 120 Mbps to their uplink and downlink speeds.

US Virgin Islands - 700MHz Spectrum Ownership:

Looking at the AWS1 and AWS3 transactions, Liberty will expand their NR Band 66 channels size in two areas. First, the combination of AWS1 B and C block will provide 1 - 15MHz channel and the AWS3 G and H block combination will provide a new 10MHz channel in NR Band 66. The purchase of Claro's AWS/AWS3 spectrum increases Virgin's NR Band 66 spectrum from 15MHz to 35MHz. This spectrum falls into 3 different channels for carrier aggregation.

US Virgin Islands - AWS1/AWS3 Spectrum Ownership:

I will take one addition look at the AWS3 and AWS4 spectrum with the news that Dish is selling its Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands spectrum to Liberty. With the Dish AWS-3 I block and the AWS-4 spectrum, Liberty will have a contagious block of 45MHz of spectrum in the NR Band 66 downlink.

Evaluating Spectrum Screens by Band Classifications Tue, Oct 24, 2023

Recently the FCC opened a comment period regarding an AT&T petition to establish a mid-band spectrum screen. I thought this would be a good opportunity to look at the spectrum screen components by band classification.

In the table below, we demonstrate how each of the Spectrum Screen values for Spektrum Metrics and the FCC roll up into each of the band classifications. As a reminder, Low Band spectrum is good for coverage, Lower Midband spectrum balances bandwidth with coverage, and Upper Midband spectrum emphasizes bandwidth with less coverage that Lower Midband spectrum.

In the far right column, we indicate what the FCC spectrum screen component would be for that particular band. The historical FCC guideline has been to establish a spectrum screen at 1/3 of the total allotted spectrum.

To evaluate each carrier's Spectrum Screen with these band classifications, we updated the Spectrum Screen modules in our Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool to detail the Spectrum Screen values for each county and each Cellular Market Area (CMA).

County Spectrum Screen:

CMA Market Spectrum Screen:

In the following 3 charts, we highlight each of the national carrier's Spectrum Screen values for the Top 50 CMA markets by band classification. You can visualize where the inputted FCC spectrum screen value from the table above would lie relative to each carrier's market values.

Low Band Spectrum Screen:

Lower Midband Spectrum Screen:

Upper Midband Spectrum Screen:

Market Spectrum Screens for the US National Carriers Wed, Oct 11, 2023

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.

The Effect of Comcast's 600MHz Spectrum on T-Mobile's Low Band 5G - NR Channel Size Thu, Sep 14, 2023

In Fierce Wireless' article on T-Mobile's initial lease of Comcast's 600MHz spectrum, there were 3 markets highlighted as "required" as part of the purchase agreement. These three markets are New York City, Orlando, and Kansas City. In this post we want to examine the effect on the effective Band 71 NR channel size that T-Mobile will be utilizing for their low band 5G network in these markets.

To see all of the markets where Comcast has 600MHz spectrum, we will utilize our Web Spectrum Viewer - Mapping.

Comcast 600MHz Licenses:

A simple way to view the current and the new channel size is to view T-Mobile and Comcast's 600MHz licenses in our Web Spectrum Viewer - Spectrum Grid.

New York PEA Market Licenses:

In the New York market, T-Mobile currently controls 2x15MHz of spectrum enabling a 15MHz uplink and downlink channel. With the addition of Comcast's adjacent A block spectrum T-Mobile will be able to increase their channel size in the 600MHz band to 20MHz.

Kansas City PEA Market Licenses:

In the Kansas City market, T-Mobile currently controls 2x15MHz of spectrum enabling a 15MHz uplink and downlink channel. With Comcast's E block spectrum T-Mobile will be able to increase their channel size in the 600MHz band to 20MHz.

Orlando PEA Market Licenses:

In the Orlando market, T-Mobile currently controls 2x10MHz of spectrum enabling a 10MHz uplink and downlink channel. With Comcast's E block spectrum T-Mobile will be able to increase their channel size in the 600MHz band to 15MHz.

A Look at USCellular's Spectrum Ownership in Spektrum Metric's Tabular Views Tue, Aug 15, 2023

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.

Conclusion:

Carrier	Desired MHz-POPs (Cellular)
Verizon	214,164,150
AT&T	424,149,500
Either	34,827,725

A Look at USCellular's Spectrum Ownership in Spektrum Metrics' Map Views Wed, Aug 09, 2023

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.

How Much Has T-Mobile's EBS License Ownership Changed since the FCC Rule Change? Fri, Jul 14, 2023

On July 11, 2019, the FCC released a report and order that provided a pathway to commercial ownership of the 2.5GHz Educational Broadcast Service (EBS) channels that were previously reserved for educational groups. In this post, I am going to examine the progress that T-Mobile has made in shifting from leasing this spectrum to owning it.

We will be looking at two trends, using historical data from Spektrum Metric's Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool. The Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool is updated monthly and provides historical analysis going back to 2014.

Looking at our Spectrum Ownership Grid in the Web Spectrum Viewer, T-Mobile's control of the EBS spectrum is clearly seen. This is our Spectrum Grid displaying "Future" data which includes spectrum that T-Mobile leases or has a pending transaction filed.

Spectrum Grid - Future:

Shifting to the Spectrum Ownership Grid to display the spectrum licensee "FCC" reveals the licenses that T-Mobile actually owns. All of the white cells are educational licenses that likely lease their spectrum to T-Mobile.

Spectrum Grid - FCC:

National Weighted Spectrum Depth Trend:

The spectrum available in the EBS and BRS (Broadband Radio Service) bands for each county totals 194 MHz. If T-Mobile controlled every license in every county their National Population Weighted Average spectrum depth in the 2.5 GHz band would be 194 MHz, thus any amount of below 194 MHz represents another licensees ownership or lease of spectrum in these bands.

After the EBS Auction was completed, T-Mobile's total 2.5 GHz spectrum (orange line) rose from roughly 164 MHz to 180 MHz, indicating that about 14 MHz of Nationally Weighted Spectrum is controlled by other carriers and licensees. The spike in September 2022 indicates the release of the auction results.

Over the same time period we quantified the spectrum that was directly owned by T-mobile (blue line). Note: The EBS Auction results are not reflected in this trend line because T-Mobile has not received direct ownership of the licenses. In the December 2010 to June 2023 timeframe, T-Mobile increased their ownership of the EBS spectrum by 11 MHz (National Weighted Population Spectrum Depth).

MHz-POPs Trend:

MHz-POPs represent the value of the individual or cumulative licenses. It is essentially found by multiplying the number of people (population) that can be served by a license times the bandwidth (MHz) of the license. In the chart below, the orange link represents the cumulative MHz-POPs for all of the EBS licenses that T-Mobile owns and leases while the yellow line represents the EBS licenses that T-Mobile owns. In December 2020, T-Mobile had 29 Billion MHz-POPs of leased EBS spectrum and over the last 30 months they have converted about 2.5 Billion MHz-POPs of those licenses into owned spectrum. Again, the EBS auction licenses are not reflected on the Owned EBS trend line since the licenses have not been granted.