T-Mobile: Broadcast Spectrum Will Be Insufficient

According to written testimony for a Sept. 13 House hearing on government spectrum use, T-Mobile will tell the House Communications Subcommittee the Federal Communications Commission incentive auctions for reclaimed broadcast spectrum combined with earlier fixed microwave spectrum freed up for mobile still "are simply not enough" to meet demand, even combined with what they say are their ongoing efforts to use the spectrum they have more efficiently. The company also says that for the most part, freed-up government spectrum should be turned over to commercial users on an exclusive, or near-exclusive, basis, rather than shared. A National Telecommunications and Information Administration report identifying 95 MHz of government spectrum for possible reclamation said sharing needed to be part of the solution to the spectrum crunch.