Verzon spectrum: Time for MetroPCS to put up or shut up

[ChazzMatt]

Oh, look! Verizon is selling a lot of the spectrum that MetroPCS needs if they wish to grow.

However, I predict MetroPCS still will not buy any spectrum. They just keep SAYING they want to. What they really want is to be bought out.

Three of the better articles:


http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...mpid=138890509

Verizon to auction spectrum worth billions

by PETER SVENSSON • APRIL 19, 2012



NEW YORK — Verizon Wireless on Wednesday said it will auction a parcel of radio frequencies, which could be worth billions of dollars in an industry scrambling to offer consumers more cellular broadband.

The offer is contingent on Verizon’s getting government approval for three deals to buy spectrum from cable companies and Leap Wireless for a total of about $4 billion. Those deals were struck in November and December but have met resistance from public-interest groups that say the cellphone company, already the nation’s largest, doesn’t need more spectrum and shouldn’t be cozying up to competitors such as the cable companies.

Spectrum rights are the lifeblood of the wireless industry because they are necessary to operate wireless networks. In recent years, growing demand for wireless data service has prompted cellphone companies to search for more spectrum, which would allow them to offer higher download speeds.

The spectrum Verizon proposes to auction has been called the “beachfront property” of the airwaves because it makes it easy to build a wireless broadband network with good coverage.

Verizon bought the rights to use the frequencies from the government for $4.4 billion in 2008. They were formerly used by UHF TV stations and cover areas including Philadelphia, New York, Washington, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami. (See? Prime MetroPCS market spectrum! But MetroPCS won't buy, I bet.)

Verizon is keeping a larger nationwide swathof spectrum it bought in the same auction. It’s using that for its “4G LTE” network, which went live a year and a half ago.

Verizon spokeswoman Robin Nicol denied that the auction is designed to get regulators at the Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department to approve the spectrum deals with the cable companies and Leap. If those transactions go through, Verizon won’t need the licenses it plans to auction, she said.

“We wanted to put these licenses in the hands of other carriers who could use them, for the benefit of their customers,” she said.

One of the companies that might be interested in the spectrum is No. 2 carrier AT&T Inc., which has been building its own LTE network in adjacent bands.

An AT&T spokesman said the company has no comment on Verizon’s proposal.

Verizon Wireless is a joint venture controlled by Verizon Communications Inc., the New York-based phone company. Vodafone Group P.L.C., a British cellphone company, owns the 45 percent that Verizon doesn’t own.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...,1068226.story

Verizon Wireless plans to sell coveted airwaves

Verizon Wireless says it won't need airwaves it paid $4.4 billion for in an auction in '08 if regulators OK its plan to acquire spectrum from a consortium that includes Comcast and Time Warner Cable.[/SIZE]


by JIM PUZZANGHERA, LOS ANGELES TIMES • APRIL 18, 2012




WASHINGTON — Verizon Wireless plans to sell billions of dollars' worth of prime airwaves if regulators approve its planned purchases of new chunks of spectrum primarily from large cable companies.

Verizon, which paid about $4.4 billion in 2008 in a government auction of coveted airwaves in the 700-megahertz band, said it no longer would need that spectrum to deploy its fourth-generation LTE network if the cable deals are approved.

Among the spectrum Verizon plans to sell are swaths covering Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and other major metropolitan areas.

The wireless giant's offer Wednesday was designed to reduce criticism from competitors and public interest groups about its planned purchases from a consortium of Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc. and Bright House Networks, as well as other acquisitions from Cox Communications Inc. and Leap Wireless International Inc.

The Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice are reviewing Verizon's planned spectrum purchases.

The company agreed in December to pay $3.6 billion for the airwaves from the cable consortium, which had planned to use them to enter the wireless business. Verizon also agreed to buy airwaves from Cox, a former member of the consortium, for $315 million and wants approval to swap some spectrum with Leap.

Verizon's intention to sell some of its existing spectrum should help it win approval of the deals, said industry analyst Dave P. Kaut at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. Other wireless companies would be interested in buying the spectrum, which is considered excellent for carrying wireless data, he said.

"Since wireless operators, large and small, have expressed concern about the availability of high-quality spectrum, we believe our 700-megahertz licenses will be attractive to a wide range of buyers," said Molly Feldman, vice president of business development at Verizon Wireless.

Public Knowledge, a public interest group, said it still opposed Verizon's acquisitions and doubted that the company's offer to sell other spectrum would lead to more wireless competition.

"Verizon is trying to use the mere offer of a spectrum sale to tempt the FCC and the Justice Department into approving the deal with the cable companies, and the agencies should resist the temptation," said Harold Feld, legal director of Public Knowledge.

"Recent history of such spectrum sell-offs shows that when Verizon and AT&T sell off spectrum, it's Verizon who buys AT&T's and vice versa," he said. "Having AT&T buy Verizon spectrum in this instance would do nothing … to help consumers."

Regulators, however, could require Verizon to sell some of its 700-MHz airwaves as a contingency for approving the deals and could bar large participants such as AT&T from acquiring the spectrum.

Verizon said it expected to get approval for its acquisitions by mid-summer.

http://www.wirelessweek.com/News/201...lock-licenses/

VZW to Sell Spectrum A, B Block Licenses

by ANDREW BERG
Wednesday, April 18, 2012



Verizon Wireless today announced plans to sell off its 700 MHz A and B Block spectrum licenses but says it's all contingent on approval of its bid to purchase AWS licenses from the likes of SpectrumCo, Cox and Leap Wireless, which is currently under close scrutiny by regulators.

The carrier said the licenses cover dozens of major cities across the country, as well as a number of smaller and rural markets. A Block licenses include major metropolitan markets such as New York, San Francisco and Atlanta, among others. B Block includes cellular markets in Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami among others.

Molly Feldman, vice president of Business Development for Verizon Wireless, said in a statement that the company believes its 700 MHz licenses will be attractive to a wide range of buyers.

“Moreover, provided our acquisition of AWS spectrum is approved, our open sale process will ensure these A and B spectrum licenses are quickly and fairly made available for the benefit of other carriers and their customers,” she said.

Verizon Wireless obtained the 700 MHz A and B licenses, as well as nationwide 700 MHz upper C licenses, in FCC Auction 73 in 2008. The company is deploying its LTE network on its nationwide 700 MHz upper C spectrum. Verizon hopes to acquire additional AWS (Advanced Wireless Services) spectrum licenses, which it will use in conjunction with its 700 MHz upper C band spectrum to deploy additional LTE capacity. (Really? They WANT AWS? Then, Verizon will have manufacturers make LTE phones with AWS chipsets just like MetroPCS... Interesting!)

Sale of the A and B licenses is contingent on the close of Verizon Wireless’ pending $3.9 billion purchase of AWS licenses from SpectrumCo (an entity jointly owned by Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks), Cox and Leap Wireless.

Both T-Mobile and MetroPCS have asked the government to block the transaction because it would result in what they characterize as "excessive concentration" of spectrum in Verizon's control, a claim Verizon has refuted, saying without the additional AWS spectrum, it could run into shortages as early as 2013.

Verizon said it is announcing the sale plans now and will begin the process of soliciting interest from potential buyers to ensure the process can move forward quickly once the AWS license transfers have been completed.

[mike2828]

Perfect opportunity watch metro just look away at this lol I'm telling you guys metro has the mentality that it will get bought and not even try to purchase this spectrum

Sent from my LG-MS910 using Tapatalk 2 Beta-6

[j-smokey]

you guys acting like Metro wouldt LOVE to get their hands on more spectrum...thats the ONLY thing keeping them from further evolving. They will likely bid BUT lose, metro only has around 1.3 Billion for spectrum, seen as Verizon payed 4.4 Billion it will go past Metros budget thats for sure, AT&T will most likely get it or even Sprint to make the switched to LTE and then maybe buy MetroPCS..


Point is for MetroPCS to further evolve and have LTE everywhere, they either need to buy more spectrum, which they dont have enough $$ or get a deal with another phone company like Sprint and get bought or have some kind of partnership...

those the only 2 options i see, if not Metro will not grow further....

[ChazzMatt]

you guys acting like Metro wouldt LOVE to get their hands on more spectrum...thats the ONLY thing keeping them from further evolving. They will likely bid BUT lose, metro only has around 1.3 Billion for spectrum, seen as Verizon payed 4.4 Billion it will go past Metros budget thats for sure, AT&T will most likely get it or even Sprint to make the switched to LTE and then maybe buy MetroPCS..


Point is for MetroPCS to further evolve and have LTE everywhere, they either need to buy more spectrum, which they dont have enough $$ or get a deal with another phone company like Sprint and get bought or have some kind of partnership...

those the only 2 options i see, if not Metro will not grow further....

Metro says they have up to $1.5 billion to spend... Just last month, they again said they wanted more spectrum:


http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-574...th-500k-users/

MetroPCS joining the LTE spectrum battle with 500k users
MetroPCS is going to need more LTE spectrum, and soon, if the carrier is going to convert more of its 9 million customers to 4G.

March 27, 2012 5:55 PM


In fact, MetroPCS is making 4G spectrum its top priority, Terreri said at the Barclays Capital 2012 High Yield Bond and Syndicated Loan Conference. He added that MetroPCS can invest $1 billion to $1.5 billion.

Metro keeps saying they want more spectrum but last year there was a deal for spectrum that Dish ended up buying and Metro didn't even bother bidding. $1.375 billion. It had a nationwide footprint and would have made Metro a national player. They could then even wholesale out, like Sprint does. When it comes to deals like this Metro is merely a pretender, not a player.

You say they will bid and lose. I doubt they will bid at all. They don't want to make whoever buys them out mad.

[j-smokey]

Metro keeps saying they want more spectrum but last year there was a deal for spectrum that Dish ended up buying and Metro didn't even bother bidding. $1.375 billion. It had a nationwide footprint and would have made Metro a national player. They could then even wholesale out, like Sprint does. When it comes to deals like this Metro is merely a pretender, not a player.

You say they will bid and lose. I doubt they will bid at all. They don't want to make whoever buys them out mad.

who did Dish get the spectrum from?... i remember something about that but all im finding right now is something about AT&T and Sprint thinking about buying some of Dish Spectrum o_0

but if i remember correctly in that deal Dish and At&T wanted it, the problem MetroPCS bidding is that they bidding KNOWINGLY that another company is going to bid higher....whats the point of bidding if that company KNOWS you cant out bid them.... you will only be helping out X company thats selling it to get a higher price...

and im not 100% sure metro will for that reason, but if they want to get better they need to attempt lol

[n4zty]

they seem not to be concerned anymore with spectrum but rather collecting more money off us i mean really jack up the unlimted plan to $70?? maybe if ya turn up the speeds and coverage perhaps people like me would be interested in dishing up an extra $20 an month for such a service but in reality they want to charge a premium price for a service thats anything but premium and that in my book is called epic mistake!

[ChazzMatt]

who did Dish get the spectrum from?... i remember something about that but all im finding right now is something about AT&T and Sprint thinking about buying some of Dish Spectrum o_0

See here -- from last June:

http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...ight=terrestar

[j-smokey]

they seem not to be concerned anymore with spectrum but rather collecting more money off us i mean really jack up the unlimted plan to $70?? maybe if ya turn up the speeds and coverage perhaps people like me would be interested in dishing up an extra $20 an month for such a service but in reality they want to charge a premium price for a service thats anything but premium and that in my book is called epic mistake!

completely agree with you, i think they did that to get extra revenue with the hope enough people would get it and have more money to buy spectrum...idk thats the only reason i see lol

sucks, but i really think Metro is stuck between a hard place and a rock, not too many choices and slowly but surely LTE devices are selling so eventually they need to reach some kind of a deal...

[fdbryant3]

First off - how does less sprectrum rights make Metro more attractive for a buy out?

Regardlesslast year MetroPCS was in a diffferent position than they are now. Last year it would seem Sprint was serious about purchasing about MetroPCS only to bail at the last minute. So who is going to buy MetroPCS now?

T-Mobile probably can't and I doubt would be a good fit even they could. Sprint has already passed, have a hard time believing they are going to re-visit that any time soon. I doubt Verizon or AT&T have any use for MetroPCS. I suppose one of the other regional players might but is any of them in a position to do so?

Finally I doubt MetroPCS is going to bother bidding for this spectrum either (if it comes available) because they probably can't afford it. Verizon paid a lot for it and it is described as being premium spectrum, I doubt that they are going to take to much of a loss on it (if at all).

[j-smokey]

First off - how does less sprectrum rights make Metro more attractive for a buy out?.

because it not about the Spectrum Metro doest have, its about the spectrum they do have...

i think Spring didt want to get metro and then have to try to buy more spectrum, i think they would want to buy Spectrum first then buy MetroPCS, that way they dont put themselves in a similar position Metro is right now...

get spectrum for a good price, get metropcs and its spectrum, and boom jump right in with LTE everywhere...

Metropcs was going to get bought for i think $8.8 Billion, purchase 4 Billion worth of spectrum, you have a solid investment where profit will surely come...

but if spring doest buy metro, and metro cant afford more spectrum, metro pcs is F**ked lol

EDIT:

nice article explaining how the deals might go, and how AT&T might buy the B Spectrum and Maybe MetroPCS might buy the A spectrum..

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/...rum/2012-04-18

[ChazzMatt]

First off - how does less sprectrum rights make Metro more attractive for a buy out?

Because Metro feels right now they were almost worth $8 billion from Sprint and they want to keep the balance sheets looking good. If they sink $1.5 billion into new spectrum which a buyer may not need, it's like a girlfriend running up a $50,000 credit card bill for new clothes. If you marry her, YOU will be paying the credit card bill and you can't even wear those clothes.

Metro was the one that approached Sprint last year and BEGGED to be bought out. So, right now they don't have the mentality of the scrappy aggressor. They just repeatedly SAY they want more spectrum, but for the past year haven't done anything to actually acquire it.

They talk a good game.

Regardlesslast year MetroPCS was in a diffferent position than they are now. Last year it would seem Sprint was serious about purchasing about MetroPCS only to bail at the last minute. So who is going to buy MetroPCS now?

T-Mobile probably can't and I doubt would be a good fit even they could. Sprint has already passed, have a hard time believing they are going to re-visit that any time soon. I doubt Verizon or AT&T have any use for MetroPCS. I suppose one of the other regional players might but is any of them in a position to do so?

1) Sprint can revisit the decision. Maybe a lower price -- they might think $7 billion is better. Maybe more of the compensation gets paid in other ways, like stock options instead of cash and stock.

2) Possibly Verizon. They just got some AWS spectrum from Leap which makes no sense to me. But it means Verizon will start making LTE phones with AWS chipsets -- just like MetroPCS and Leap/Cricket. Therefore, Verizon could see value in either Leap or Cricket as a "budget" brand the way Sprint has fully owned "budget brand" subsidiaries Virgin Mobile and Boost. Verizon could compete on two tiers -- premium with AT&T, and then "budget" against pre-paids and others. I'm not saying I would like it, but it makes sense from a business point of view for Verizon. The budget brand would have capped LTE speeds, etc.

Verizon buying a smaller pre-paid carrier like MetroPCS (or Leap/Cricket) would not face the same roadblocks as the AT&T/T-Mobile merger.

3) Leap/Cricket. They almost merged with MetroPCS back in 2009. These two pre-paid carriers (MetroPCS & Leap/Cricket) are almost mirror images of each other but in mostly different markets. Same spectrum frequencies (CDMA, AWS, LTE), they even sell some of the same phones. Leap/Cricket has a full 3G (EVDO) nationwide roaming deal with Sprint, while also building out their own LTE network. Metro has a 1x RTT nationwide roaming deal with Sprint while building out their own LTE network. Might be time to take another look.

Finally I doubt MetroPCS is going to bother bidding for this spectrum either (if it comes available) because they probably can't afford it. Verizon paid a lot for it and it is described as being premium spectrum, I doubt that they are going to take to much of a loss on it (if at all).

Verizon paid a lot for ALL the spectrum. Metro doesn't have to buy it all.

[n4zty]

checking out different carriers and their plans prices, i suppose for now atleast for me im gonna evaluate metro's pros and cons and weigh them against other carriers and try to make a decision to see if its worth staying with metro or looking elsewhere.

Ok here we got at&t geeze their unlimted plans are $70 plus if u want unlimted 4g Lte on it its an extra $30 up to 3 gigs...
AT&T Plans

DataPro 3GB for Smartphone 4G LTE

Includes:
3GB of data
Unlimited AT&T Wi-Fi Basic usage!
Designed for LTE users who primarily:

Stream music from music services such as AT&T Music
Watch videos on YouTube
Download apps and files
Surf the web
Send and receive personal email
Visit social networking sites
Use search engines
Reference Wikipedia and other reference sites
Shop and pay bills online
Get maps and directions
Visual Voice Mail
Is it the right amount of data for you?
Try the AT&T Data Usage Calculator tool to estimate how much data you use every month.

How do I use AT&T Wi-Fi Basic?
Most LTE handsets have Wi-Fi built in! You can connect quickly and seamlessly to your home wireless network or to more than 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots in the U.S at no additional charge. Find an AT&T Hot Spot near you. A Wi-Fi enabled device required. Other restrictions apply. See www.attwifi.com for additional services details and locations.

What if I go over 3GB?
3GB of data is for use in the U.S. If 3GB is exceeded, an additional 1 GB is automatically provided at a rate of $10 for each additional 1 GB. All data allowances, including overages, must be used in the billing period in which the allowance is provided. For more details on Data Plans, go to www.att.com/dataplans.

Verizon's Plans

Anytime Minutes Monthly Access Overage
450 $39.99 45¢/Minute
900* $59.99 40¢/Minute
Unlimited $69.99

Data

Data Allowance How much do I need? Monthly Access Overage
Pay As You Go (For Basic Phones Only) $1.99/MB – Personal Email $5
75MB (For Basic Phones Only) $10 $10/75MB
2GB $30 $10/1GB
5GB $50 $10/1GB
10GB $80 $10/1GB

T-Mobile

$50 plan first 100mb at 4g speeds
$60 plan first 2gb at 4g speeds
$70 plan first 5gb at 4g speeds

[mike2828]

checking out different carriers and their plans prices, i suppose for now atleast for me im gonna evaluate metro's pros and cons and weigh them against other carriers and try to make a decision to see if its worth staying with metro or looking elsewhere.

Ok here we got at&t geeze their unlimted plans are $70 plus if u want unlimted 4g Lte on it its an extra $30 up to 3 gigs...
AT&T Plans

DataPro 3GB for Smartphone 4G LTE




T-Mobile

I try both Tmobile and Sprint and metro believe or not provided better signal I also noticed that after taxes with sprint it was close to $92 with fake 4G so metro even at $70 still a deal but with their LTE rollout sprint looks interesting I was hoping metro offer a hot spot plan but that is not happening either way metro still a good deal for me

Sent from my LG-MS910 using Tapatalk 2 Beta-6

[n4zty]

lol we do have a mobile hotspot plan on metro unfortunately its unoffcial and u gotta root ur phone lmao!!! and oh it always counts towards ur data lol.

[MageWolf]

I just hope Metro plans to stick around..because as someone else mentioned awhile back Metro could be bought and absorbed..taking the spectrum (and the office furniture) turn off the lights, and boom one less competitor