Fine Tuning the Incentive Auction Rules for Competition

The Federal Communications Commission is planning to auction returned TV broadcast spectrum for commercial wireless services as early as next year, and in T-Mobile’s view, it can’t happen soon enough.

As our competitors well know, arming T-Mobile with low-band spectrum is a competitive game-changer, enabling our service to penetrate building walls better and travel longer distances than we can with the spectrum we have today. Imagine a T-Mobile with even greater coverage, offering innovative Un-carrier deals to even more customers in even more places - in direct competition with the Twin Bells! We would ask, however, that a few small -- but crucial -- changes to the rules be made. In particular, T-Mobile has asked the FCC to increase the size of the “reserve” so that no matter how much spectrum is up for sale, at least 50 percent of it will be held in reserve for competitors with little or no low-band spectrum in that market.