* Incumbent operators are big winners
A new era of open access in the mobile WAN supposedly dawned with the conclusion of the U.S. 700MHz spectrum auctions last week. But, ironically, the carriers to snap up the most spectrum licenses are the two that have not joined the Open Handset Alliance, a major initiative to decouple mobile applications, devices and networks.
A new era of open access in the mobile WAN supposedly dawned with the conclusion of the U.S. 700MHz spectrum auctions last week. But, ironically, the carriers to snap up the most spectrum licenses are the two that have not joined the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), a major initiative to decouple mobile applications, devices and networks.
The two dominant U.S. wireless network operators, Verizon Wireless and AT&T, grabbed most of the available spectrum. Verizon Wireless, in particular, was deemed the big winner, having gained a nationwide footprint license in the 22MHz “C” block covering 298 million people, as well as a peppering of individual market licenses that together cover 171 million people. The FCC requires operators offering services in the C block to allow any compatible device or application onto their networks.
AT&T won more than 150 licenses in the B block of spectrum, which generally covers individual metropolitan areas throughout the United States and carries no open-access mandates. Together, the two carriers bid $16 billion, which represents more than 80% of the $19.6 billion in total bids, according to the FCC.
The garnering of more airwaves by the two mobile heavyweights comes at a time when the prospect of open access – allowing a mix-and-match of third-party devices and applications onto a given carrier’s network – is a widely heralded goal, at least from the developer and enterprise customer perspective. Sprint has said it will allow open access to its forthcoming WiMAX services, and has joined – along with T-Mobile – the OHA, a 30-company multinational group dedicated to promoting Google’s Android open-access mobile platform initiative.
Given that spectrum-license winners Verizon Wireless and AT&T are not currently OHA members and AT&T’s status as the exclusive carrier to support the Apple iPhone, it would seem that AT&T has little interest in the flexibility that open access might deliver to mobile users.
For its part, Verizon has reportedly stated that it plans to support Android-based devices on its network. So why not join the alliance? Verizon last week released the interoperability specs devices must support to harmoniously connect to its network. Perhaps not joining the alliance gives the carrier wiggle room for deeming Android-based devices “incompatible” with its network.
