39GHz - Auction 103 Reconfiguration Analysis - Number Blocks Tue, Mar 26, 2019

On March 21st, the FCC released a Notice of Procedures describing how existing 39GHz spectrum ownership below will be remapped to the new 39GHz configuration.  We thought it would be beneficial to see how the FCC arrived at their results.

Current Configuration:

Future Configuration:

The procedures the FCC announced will provide a route for the existing 39GHz owners to essentially trade-in their spectrum for vouchers that can be used in Auction 103.  The FCC published a summary of the aggregated holdings data for each of the 39GHz licensees so we decided to use the data from our Millimeter Wave - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool to show the underlying calculations.

We are able to use the data from our Millimeter Wave - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool to determine the aggregate MHz-POPs value for PEA003 (Chicago).  To find the aggregate MHz-POPs we must first find the MHz-POPs contribution for each of AT&T's licenses (call signs) in the Chicago market.  Below are each of the county MHz-POPs components for each call sign.  We have indicated whether the license covers the entire county or whether it is a partial license in the Full/Partial County column.  The county MHz-POPs component is found by multiplying the bandwidth for each call sign by the county population.  The total aggregate MHz-POPs is the sum of the county MHz-POPs for all of AT&T's licenses.  Using this process, we have found AT&T's aggregate MHz-POPs to by 2,817,188,800 compared to the FCC's results of 2,815,434,000.

The Market MHz-POPs value is found by multiplying the new 39GHz channel size (100MHz) by the total population of the Chicago PEA.  

The next calculation provides the number of blocks that AT&T is authorized to receive in the 39GHz auction by relinquishing their current licenses.  Our analysis indicates that AT&T will start with slightly more than 3 - 100MHz channel blocks in Chicago before the auction starts.

T-Mobile's 28GHz Plan and a little on Verizon's Wed, Mar 06, 2019

Several articles have come out since Mobile World Congress (MWC) where T-Mobile has discussed their 5G millimeter wave plans.  Below is a map that shows the amount 28GHz (L1 channel)  currently controlled by T-Mobile.  This is one of the two 28GHz channels licensed for mobile use.  County-level spectrum depth outputs for this map were taken from our Company Analysis Module which is part of the Millimeter Wave - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool.

It is important to note that the L1 maximum channel size is 425MHz and wherever T-Mobile owns 28GHz spectrum, the remainder of the L1 and L2 channels are owned by Verizon.  The only exception to this is Ohio, where the spectrum not controlled by T-Mobile is leased to First Communications.

Another way to look at T-Mobile's 28GHz deployment plan is comparing their available spectrum depth in each of the Top 10 Cellular Market Areas (CMA).  This is seen below from our CMA Market Analysis module, which is part of the Millimeter Wave - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool.

The New York CMA provides an interesting example where T-Mobile's spectrum ownership in the most populated New York counties has significantly decreased the available channel size for Verizon.  This data is taken from our Spectrum Grid module, which is part of the Millimeter Wave - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool.

As you can see above, T-Mobile's spectrum ownership in the Bronx, King, New York, Putnam, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, and Westchester counties sits in the middle of the 425MHz channel reducing Verizon's maximum channel size to 260MHz.

An Evaluation of AT&T Millimeter Wave Markets Tue, Mar 05, 2019

This morning, Light Reading published an article on AT&T and Verizon's 5G mmWave deployments.  In the article AT&T's SVP of wireless technology, Igal Elbaz, indicated that AT&T is initially deploying 100 MHz channels from their 39 GHz spectrum.  I decided to look at their initial deployment markets to see how this was accomplished.  One of the challenges that AT&T faces, is the fact that the 39 GHz band is in a bit of transition.  It currently consists of 14 (50 MHz each) paired channels, but after the 37 and 39 GHz auctions, it will be reconfigured into 14 TDD channels (100 MHz each).  For AT&T to be able to launch a 100 MHz channel in the 39 GHz band, they would need to control 3 contiguous channels so they can create a guard band on each side of their commercial channel.  This is necessary because they are operating a Timing Division Duplex (TDD) channel likely in the 39 GHz downlink band.  TDD means that the channel transmits and receives in the same band or channel.  Without the guard bands AT&T 5G channel would be subject to interference especially when the channel is receiving data from mobiles.

So now let's take a look at AT&T's spectrum ownership using Allnet Insights' Millimeter Wave - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool (Spectrum Grid).

Louisville, KY:

In Louisville, AT&T controls 4 contiguous channels in the downlink band (5-B, 6-B, 7-B, and 8-B)  They can use 6-B and 7-B for their 5G channel and 5-B and 8-B for the guard bands.  In the article Igal indicated that AT&T would expand to 4 - 100 MHz channels in the future.  That will not be during 2019 and likely not during the first half of 2020.

In Louisville, AT&T already controls the necessary 400 MHz of spectrum but AT&T will need to wait until the 37 and 39 GHz auction are complete to "repack" their 39 GHz spectrum into the new band plan below along with the auction winners to get their remaining spectrum "deployable".

Oklahoma City, OK:

In Oklahoma City AT&T only controls 3 contiguous channels (8-B, 9-B, and 10-B).  I would expect that AT&T has centered its 5G channel on channel 9-B and it using 25 MHz of 8-B and 25 MHz of 10-B for guard bands.

Dallas, TX:

The final market we will look at is Dallas.  It is apparent that AT&T lacks the required 3 contiguous channels necessary for a 100 MHz 5G channel in this market.  As you can see, the FCC controls the 13-B and 14-B channels adjacent to AT&T's 12-B and 13-B channels.  I believe that AT&T has likely requested Special Temporary Authority (STA) from the FCC to use these channels until they are auctioned.

Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool Release for CANADA Mon, Mar 04, 2019

Allnet Insights & Analytics is excited to announce an expansion of our industry leading spectrum ownership analysis products to cover the Mobile Carrier (600MHz to 3.7GHz) frequency bands for Canada. We are releasing not only a March 2019 new release, but historical monthly releases going back to December 2017.  The Mobile Carrier Tool not only provides the spectrum allocation details for all of the Canadian Mobile Carrier spectrum but it provides 21 different analysis modules and charts to analyze and compare each wireless carrier's spectrum assets by channel, market, frequency band, band classification, and LTE band class.

The Canadian Spectrum Grid details the spectrum ownership and subordinate licensing (leases) for each service area (Tier 4).  The service areas can be seen on the example map below which indicates the spectrum owners for the Broadband Radio Service (BRS) A1 channel.  

Below is the Canadian Spectrum Grid for the Mobile Carrier low band spectrum.  All of the 600MHz spectrum is currently controlled by ISED Canada (ISD) leading up to the March 12, 2019 auction start.  Purchases of the Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool (CAN) during March 2019 will receive a complementary release after ISED Canada announces the auction results.

For more information on the Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool (CAN) please email us at info@allnetinsights.com.

CBRS and C-band Spectrum Tracking Mon, Feb 11, 2019

In the February 2019 release of our Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool, we have added the framework to visualize and analyze the Citizen's Band Radio Service (CBRS) and the C-Band satellite spectrum. 

The CBRS spectrum is broken into 10 - 10 MHz channels which will have 7 channels available for Priority Access Licenses (PAL) licenses and 3 licenses that are reserved for General Authorized Access (GAA).  When this spectrum is auctioned, licensees will not get specific channels but they will be allocated 10 MHz for each PAL license through the Spectrum Access System (SAS).  Our spectrum depth tools will summarize the available spectrum capacity that a carrier controls in the CBRS band similar to their AWS1 or PCS capacity that we currently track.

We have initially configured the C-Band spectrum in 20 MHz channels for a total allocation of 180 MHz. Like the CBRS spectrum we have assigned the initial ownership of the licenseable block to the FCC so users can see the total allocation in our spectrum depth summary tables.

Our spectrum depth tables provide users with frequency band breakdowns along with low band, mid band, and high band summaries.  We include the CBRS and C-band spectrum in our High band category because the coverage performance for those bands is not equivalent to the other mid-band spectrum frequencies.  High band spectrum also includes the WCS (2.3 GHz) and EBS/BRS (2.5 GHz).  We continue to denote spectrum above 6 GHz as Millimeter Wave spectrum in our Millimeter Wave - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool.

Sprint's Use of the 2.5GHz Guard Bands for TDD-LTE Mon, Feb 11, 2019

Late last year Sprint, filed some renewal applications that provided some insights into how they are configuring their 2.5 GHz spectrum assets for 20 MHz TDD-LTE channels.  As a reminder, the US 2.5 GHz band is configured into an Lower Band Segment (LBS), Mid Band Segment (MBS), and Upper Band Segment (UBS).  In the graphic below each of the segments are delineated by the J guard band and the K guard band. 

The LBS is to the left of the J channel, the MBS is between the J and K channels, and the UBS is to the right of the K channel.  The purpose of these guard bands was to provide protection to the data services originally offered in the LBS and UBS from the continuing video operations in the MBS.

It is a lesser known fact, that the all of the LBS spectrum owners collectively own the 4 MHz J channel and the UBS spectrum owners collectively own the 4 MHz K channel.  The J and K channels are licensed as secondary use, meaning they can be used accepting any interference from remaining video systems (primary use) operating in the MBS.

In our February 2019 release of the Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool,  we have have expanded the detail in our Spectrum Grid for these guard band channels along with the proper licensing database records.  

As you can see in the above image, the J channel breaks down into 12 sub-blocks of 0.3 MHz each.  The first sub-block (JA1) is controlled by the owner of the A1 channel.  The second sub-block is controlled by the A2 channel owner.  So this update provides a clear view of whether Sprint controls the sub-blocks that would allow them to operate a 20 MHz channel across either guard band.  Because the use of these spectrum is secondary, we don't include these spectrum blocks in EBS/BRS spectrum totals, and MHz-POPs totals in our tools.

Now onto Sprint's recent renewal application.  Sprint's original application requested Special Temporary Authority (STA) to allow Sprint to use the KG1, KG2, and KG3 channels in 15 BTA markets where the G123 channels are still held by the FCC as unlicensed white space.

In the image above, you can see that in the counties surrounding Atlanta, the FCC controls the G123 channels. This limits Sprint's TDD-LTE deployment to 2-20 MHz channels, indicated by the black boxes.

With the STA, Sprint can utilize the KG1, KG2, and KG3 channels allowing them to form an additional 20 MHz LTE channel by combining the F4, E4, K, and BRS2 channels.

The image below is from Sprint's original filing.  It illustrates the geographic area of the Atlanta BTA and an indication where the G1 channel is licensed, where it is leased to Sprint, and where it is FCC white space.  The areas in gray that do not intersect the red or yellow areas are the FCC white spaces where Sprint has requested access to the KG1, KG2, and KG3 channels.  Sprint did not request access to the primary G1, G2,or G3 whitespace licenses (16.5MHz total).

Licensed Spectrum Survey for DAS and Small Cell Implementation Mon, Nov 05, 2018

Two questions for all of the wireless network installers and drive testers:

1)  Where can you get the spectrum assignments for all of the mobile carrier bands with in a county?

2)  How can you determine if the licensed spectrum assignment will change in the near future?

Allnet Insights' Web Spectrum Viewer now includes a Wireless Survey which details the wireless carrier that currently controls each block of Mobile Carrier spectrum (600MHz-2.5GHz) for a selected US county.  In addition, the Wireless Survey indicates whether there are any filed transaction that will move that spectrum to another wireless carrier, as indicated in the Future column.

The output table details the spectrum assignment's,licensees, and bandwidth for each block and is sorted from lowest frequency to highest frequency.  This output table can be exported as a .csv file.  

Weekly FCC Spectrum Transactions Mon, Oct 22, 2018

Upper Microwave - New Channels and New Call Signs (39GHz) Tue, Sep 04, 2018

In our September 2018 Millimeter Wave - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool, we have incorporated the FCC's re-licensing of the 39GHz into the new Upper Microwave Flexible Use Service.  In making this change the FCC issued new call signs and leases for all of the 50 x 50 MHz channels.  The call signs have been reissued on a Partial Economic Area (PEA) market frame work.  Previously these licenses were issued on a Economic Area (EA) basis. The original channels were lettered A through N.  Now they are numbered 1-14 with the A designation for the uplink channel and the B designation for the downlink channel.

The FCC reissued this spectrum with a different call sign and channel number for each of the original channel blocks.  Issuing a separate call signs will make it easier to combine the 2-50MHz blocks into 1 -100MHz block as indicated in the Fourth Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking below.

See Reducing Encumbrances in the 39 GHz Band

For example from the chart below, the 1-A and 1-B channel for Butts County, GA.

Old Records:

Market:  BEA040 - Atlanta, GA-AL-NC

Call Sign:  WPQV559

Channel A

New Records:

Market:  PEA011 - Atlanta, GA

Channel: 1-A

Call Sign: WRBI208

Channel: 1-B

Call Sign: WRBI209

The mapping of original call sign / channel to the new call sign / channel is available in our Web Spectrum Viewer, Transactions Menu.

Millimeter Wave - Upper Microwave Flexible Use (Auction Channels) Thu, Aug 30, 2018

Mobile Carrier Spectrum Screen - T-Mobile and Sprint Tue, Aug 28, 2018

With our September 2018 release of the Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool, we have added a FCC Spectrum Screen analysis to the County Analysis Module and the CMA Market Analysis Module.  With respect to the T-Mobile and Sprint merger announcement, the Spectrum Screen analysis will provide you with a composite look at the T-Mobile/Sprint spectrum assets across the Mobile Carrier frequency bands (600MHz-2.5GHz).

Following the FCC Spectrum Screen Definitions our Spectrum Screen analysis does not include the WCS guard band or the BRS1 channel which are included in our 'normal' spectrum depth totals.  In addition, the Spectrum Screen only includes 70% of the EBS spectrum holdings.

Millimeter Wave spectrum under FCC control, by band? Tue, May 08, 2018

To determine how much Millimeter Wave spectrum is controlled by the FCC, we utilize the National & State Market Analysis module from our Millimeter Wave - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool.  The values below are calculated as population weighted averages of the FCC's controlled spectrum at the county-level.  On average, the FCC has nearly 3500 MHz of spectrum available. Most of that spectrum (2700 MHz) is coming from the newly identified spectrum bands (37GHz and 47GHz) along with the reconfigured and expanded 24GHz.

Transforming the 2.5 GHz Band Tue, Apr 24, 2018

On April 19th, the FCC opened a docket to collect comments related to "Transforming the 2.5 GHz Band".  As background, the US 2.5GHz spectrum band encompasses 33 channels.  20 channels (A, B, C, D, and G groups) are designated for Educational Broadcast Service (EBS) and 13 (BRS1/2, E, F, and H) are designated for Broadband Radio Service (BRS).  

License Area:

Sprint owns a vast majority of the BRS licenses and leases a vast majority of the EBS licenses.  The licensing limitations for this spectrum are drawn from its origins providing broadcast video services.  The original licenses were formed as 35 mile radius circles centered on the video transmitting site.  When two licenses overlapped, a football shaped area would be formed.  A line would be drawn through the end points of the "football" splitting the overlapping license area between the two licensees.  BRS licenses include both 35 mile radius licenses, geographic area licenses (entire BTA) and Entire BTA license with cutouts for existing 35 mile radius licenses.

In 2009, a Broadband Radio Service auction (Auction 86) included the remaining unlicensed areas within each BTA for the BRS channels, but the unlicensed area in each BTA for the EBS channels was not auctioned.

Channel Plan Transition:

Prior to this point, Clearwire was launching pre-WiMax networks on the EBS/BRS pre-transition band plan which was designed around video operation.  As you can see in the Pre-Transition chart below, the A channels (A1, A2, A3, and A4) are separated by the B channels (B1, B2, B3, and B4).  This allowed all of the A channels to be broadcast at a video site without interference.  Clearwire would need to control both sets of the "interleaved" channels to have enough contiguous spectrum to launch their RAN network in a market.

To facilitate data network deployments and to protect the remaining video operations the FCC provided a way to transistion licenses to the Post-Transition band plan on a BTA market basis.  If there was a significant commercial video operation in a market, that BTA market was able waived from transition and it stayed with the Pre-Transition band plan.  The Post-Transition band plan put the remaining video operators into the mid-band segment (A4, B4, C4, D4, G4, F4, and E4) and provides contiguous spectrum (16.5MHz) for the rest of the channel group (e.g. A1, A2, and A3)

FCC Request for Comments:

License Area:

The FCC has expressed a desire to make the EBS unlicensed area available for use.  The FCC has asked whether the expansion of the licenses should include the entirety of the census tracks that license (35 mile) intersects or the entire county that the license intersects.  The map below from the National EBS Association (NEBSA) illustrates the counties that would be added to each intersecting EBS license for the A1 channel.  For the carriers that already lease these licenses, they would have the opportunity to deploy sites on the larger license area and would likely also pay the licensee a higher monthly payment due to the increase in licensed population.   As you can also note below, this approach still leaves all of the white counties unlicensed.

 The FCC would like to license the white counties in a 4 step manner:

1. Existing licenses could extend their license areas to the borders of the counties they currently intersect but there may be requirements on how much of each county you must already cover.
2. Rural tribal nations can apply for licenses covering their local area.  License areas could be census tracks or counties.
3. Accredited schools or governmental entities can apply for their local area licenses.  License areas could be census tracks or counties.
4. Auction remaining unlicensed area with competitive bidding.

Service Rules:

The FCC is also proposing to change the service rules for the EBS spectrum to allow the spectrum to be sold to commercial operators rather than requiring leases.

Remaining Pre-transition Markets:

The FCC is also proposing to complete transitioning the remaining pre-transition markets so a consistent band plan would be in use nationwide.  A few wireless cable operators had received waivers but most of those operators have ceased operations.  This will clear interference issues between markets and facilitate the deployment of data in the Lower Band Segment (A,B,C, and D groups) and the Upper Band Segment (E,F,G, and H groups).  Video operations will continue in the Mid Band Segment (A4, B4, C4, D4,G4,F4, and E4) in the markets where they operate today.

New Millimeter Wave Spectrum Bands Thu, Apr 05, 2018

In our last post we were discussing  the next steps for the US millimeter wave spectrum after FiberTower and the FCC settled FiberTower's licensing issues.  As we prepare for a 28GHz auction in November, and a 24GHz auction early next year, let's take a look at how each of the new millimeter wave frequency bands are configured.  Each of these images is taken from our updated Millimeter Wave - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool which is now reflecting the new channel band plans for 24GHz, 37GHz, and 47GHz.

24 GHz Spectrum:

In this view we show both the expanded 24GHz band configuration and the old 24GHz configuration. All of the spectrum depth values are calculated from the New 24GHz data. We have left the old 24GHz configuration, so you can continue to see the remaining 24GHz spectrum licenses which will need to be moved over to the New 24GHz by the FCC. The current licenses are licensed for a 40MHz uplink and 40MHz downlink which won't map properly to the new band plan.

37GHz Spectrum:

For the 37/39GHz bands we show the new 37GHz band alongside the reconfigured 39GHz band.  The new 39GHz columns are not populated because the existing spectrum holders will need to be transitioned to the larger/unpaired channels in the new 39GHz plan.  We are providing spectrum depth values for the new 37GHz spectrum and the old 39GHz spectrum.

47GHz Spectrum:

We have added the new 47GHz band configurations to the Spectrum Grid and each of the spectrum depth modules.

PEA Market Analysis:

Our last addition, is a PEA Market Analysis module.  This module displays spectrum depths for each selected carrier using the new FCC Auction market structure.  For the 28GHz auction, you can see the amount of spectrum that will be available in each of the PEAs in the LMDS A (FCC) column on the far right of the chart.

Spectrum Transaction Summary and Alerts Tue, Apr 03, 2018

What is next for Millimeter Wave Spectrum? Auction, Clear, Re-band,... Mon, Feb 26, 2018

Things are beginning to clear up now that we have the settlement between FiberTower and the FCC, which eliminated an average of 121 MHz of 24GHz spectrum that FiberTower could have provided to AT&T but FiberTower did provide AT&T most of the active and terminated licenses they wanted in the 39GHz band.

With Chairman Pai's comments at MWC 2018, it is clear that the FCC is targeting a 28-31GHz auction by the end of the year.  This makes the most sense, since the ownership of the LMDS band is more "clean" than the 39GHz.  Looking at the CMA Market Analysis from our Millimeter Wave - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool we can see that most of the spectrum that is in the FCC's hands is the LMDS B block (31,000 to 31,075MHz) and (31,225 to 31,300MHz).  It appears that 150MHz of spectrum will be available in 23 of the Top 75 CMA markets.  In addition, LMDS A block spectrum (1150Mz) will be available in 15 of the Top 100 CMA markets.   

Chairman Pai's comment that 24GHz will be the second auction, also makes sense because the settlement with FiberTower cleared the 24GHz band except in a few western markets including parts of Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and California.  This spectrum is currently licensed as 2 - 40MHz channels so these channels don't match up to the new band plan for 100 MHz channels.

It is unknown when the FCC will be able to auction the new 37GHz band with the remaining spectrum held in the 39GHz band.  Below is a county-level view of the ownership of this band from the Spectrum Grid Module in our Millimeter Wave - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool.  You can see the spectrum blocks controlled by the FCC in grey along with the spectrum that Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile each control.   These channel allocations need to be shifted so that carriers own 200MHz contiguous blocks to match the new 37/39GHz band plan.

Looking at this same counties in our County Analysis module for Spectrum Depth, you can see that each carriers allotments aren't always in 200MHz increments which are the channel sizes for the new combined 37/39GHz.  The carriers will have to figure out a plan to shift their holdings into 200MHz channels and the FCC will have to deal with fractional channel blocks and fractional counties, since the 39GHz licenses include rectangular licenses that overlap county boundaries.

FCC Announcements Blog - Find Links to Important FCC Documents for the Mobile Carrier Industry Mon, Dec 11, 2017

Allnet Insights & Analytics has launched a blog capturing all of the FCC Announcements that relate to the frequency bands that we cover in our Mobile Carrier and Millimeter Wave - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tools along with announcements that relate to siting, spectrum caps, and any proceedings that would interest the wireless carrier industry. 

The blog provides easy, searchable access to Notice for Proposed Rule-makings, auctioned spectrum proceedings and grants, as well as transfer of control announcements.  Many times these notices are difficult to find within the FCC document system. 

The blog is available from the primary menu of our home page or the direct link below.

FCC Announcements Blog

There are two ways to find specific announcements.  First, you can select Tags for the carrier, spectrum band, auction, or activity.

Second, you can utilize the search field in the bar above our menus.  This field searches are entire web site, including our Spectrum Blog, FCC Announcements Blog, as well as our Products pages.  In the search below, Key Bridge is found in the FCC Announcements blog as a database provider for the 70/80/90 GHz registration system.

T-Mobile 3rd Quarter Earnings Spectrum Transactions Mon, Oct 23, 2017

With T-Mobile's earnings release today, they indicated 3 significant spectrum transactions without identifying either the transaction partners or the markets.  Below we have compiled a transaction listing from our Web Spectrum Viewer that details the March 2017 transaction with AT&T, the September 2017 transaction with AT&T, and the pending October 2017 transaction with Verizon. Allnet Insights' Web Spectrum Viewer enables the user to display all of the details for each of these transactions including whether the entire license is being assigned or only certain frequencies for certain counties.

In the images below, AT&T transactions are highlighted in orange, Verizon transactions are highlighted in red, and USCellular transactions are highlighted in blue.  Transactions with other carriers or spectrum holder are not color-coded.

Visualize 600MHz Reserved Spectrum Thu, Sep 07, 2017

With the September 2017 release of our Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool, we have also added the ability to visualize and track the 600MHz reserved spectrum by county or by market.

In our Spectrum Grid default view, you are able to visualize which spectrum blocks are designated as reserved for the counties in each of the most populated Cellular Market Area (CMA) markets.



To display the reserved spectrum for all of the counties within a Partial Economic Area (PEA) market, you can sort the county data using the PEA # column.

What portion of the US Population can Dish reach with its License Portfolio? Tue, Sep 05, 2017

With the September 2017 release of our Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool, we have added three new charts that provide insights into the US Population that each carrier can serve with each channel in their wireless spectrum portfolio, each frequency band, and each band classification.

Licensed POPs by Channel:

With our Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool, you can analyze over 1900 carriers and spectrum holders in a similar fashion to our Dish analysis. In the chart below, we examine the population that Dish could serve with each of the channels in their license portfolio.  For example, Dish's 700MHz E Block spectrum reaches nearly 250 million people while their AWS3 A1 Block reaches 300 million people.

Licensed POPs by Frequency Band:

This chart shows the cumulative population that can be served by all of a carrier's channels in a frequency band.  Where the Licensed POPs by channel chart shows the population served by each of Dish's 600MHz channels; none of which serve more than 200 million people; with Dish's overall 600MHz spectrum, they can reach nearly the total 322 million US population.

Licensed POPs by Band Classification:

This chart shows the cumulative population that can be served by all of a carrier's low-band, mid-band, or high-band spectrum.  This is an important perspective when you consider low-band spectrum being a traditional coverage layer with mid-band spectrum being traditionally a capacity layer.  Dish's current spectrum portfolio provides them with the ability to serve the entire US population both with coverage spectrum and capacity spectrum.