The Gloves Come Off: T-Mobile Comes Out Swinging at Dish Over Spectrum Hoarding

About time. Now, maybe if Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and some smaller carriers add their voices....

Good for them. Dish deserves to be squashed like an odious bug for their unethical and illegal practices. All the spectrum is owned by the public and is required to be used for public benefit. Spectrum squatting is reprehensible.

Dish's plan is a joke. You can't build a nationwide 5G network from scratch for $10 billion.

Oh yeah. I'm all for adding pressure. If they're not going to use it: sell it or let the FCC re-auction it.

Originally Posted by bobdevnul

Dish deserves to be squashed like an odious bug for their unethical and illegal practices.

They are playing by the rules. Nothing illegal there.

Dish maybe can’t find the $10 Billion to build out their 5G Network but I bet they find the money for some of those new FCC Spectrum Auctions.

Originally Posted by HokieAl

They are playing by the rules. Nothing illegal there.

It might not be the strongest case, and innocent until guilt is proven, but you could probably piece together some illegal stuff.

I'm sure the fact for years they've sat and said this and that about the spectrum and to the FCC could warrant false accusations being made to a government agency. If they say an IOT will be built with this, one never materializes, and there's evidence showing they did that to kick the can - lying to a federal agency is pretty illegal.

Also, I know Charlie owns a majority of DISH, but there are other shareholders. If his plans with the spectrum are obviously complete lies, the SEC could step in too and investigate for fraud/misleading representation.

Charlie is saying they can complete an ENTIRE network in under 2 years for only $1 billion? For that to be accomplished, he'd need some vendors - is there evidence that's happened? With 2 years or less to go, that would sure need to be in place. Also, a nationwide network built on a new standard for that price? Heck, the new lottery winner of MegaMillions could go toe to toe with the big dogs like ATT and VZW. I mean, look at the Capex VZW and Sprint and all spend on current networks - it's not $1 billion and those are already built.

Throw the whole shebang at Charlie. He's a nutter.

Think about King Street's license protection network. They chose an air interface that is almost impossible to detect unless you have the modulation keys. No one can verify if it's operating or not. A "narrowband IOT" network could be the same thing. Smoke and mirrors but impossible to prove. "Yes, we built a network and it's running. Prove us wrong."

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

Think about King Street's license protection network. They chose an air interface that is almost impossible to detect unless you have the modulation keys. No one can verify if it's operating or not. A "narrowband IOT" network could be the same thing. Smoke and mirrors but impossible to prove. "Yes, we built a network and it's running. Prove us wrong."

Not hard to detect at all, just need an RF scanner and have it look in the 700 MHz Lower A. While it likely won't reveal that the network runs on FH-CDMA, the RF scanner will "see" that it is being used. The only "narrowband IOT" standard approved is LTE Cat-M1 and Cat-M2.

I think the FCC does random compliance testing to verify the licensees are actually running a network, even if they don't it's not smart to upload statements and coverage maps to a federal agency for non-existent coverage, you are attesting to the truth of your statements and documentation that you provide to the Federal Government.

I doubt Dish, King Street etc..would want to risk their licenses, severe fines and their reputation by lying under oath and/or penalty of perjury by providing false information to the Federal Government. This is enough to keep them honest with the coverage statements they provide, plus that they can be subjected to an audit.

Originally Posted by HokieAl

They are playing by the rules. Nothing illegal there.

They've had some of this spectrum for nearly a decade now. Where is the product? The FCC has been overly lenient with them.

AT&T and Verizon are accused constantly of spectrum squatting (something that is impossible in today's competitive environment for a carrier with actual customers in the balance) in the tech media because the tech media hates them but Dish gets a pass?

Originally Posted by bobdevnul

Good for them. Dish deserves to be squashed like an odious bug for their unethical and illegal practices. All the spectrum is owned by the public and is required to be used for public benefit. Spectrum squatting is reprehensible.

Dish's plan is a joke. You can't build a nationwide 5G network from scratch for $10 billion.

Where under CFR Title 47 is this illegal under?

Originally Posted by offthegrid

They've had some of this spectrum for nearly a decade now. Where is the product? The FCC has been overly lenient with them.

AT&T and Verizon are accused constantly of spectrum squatting (something that is impossible in today's competitive environment for a carrier with actual customers in the balance) in the tech media because the tech media hates them but Dish gets a pass?

TMobile is squatting too.

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Originally Posted by offthegrid

They've had some of this spectrum for nearly a decade now. Where is the product? The FCC has been overly lenient with them.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/fredcam.../#65e6c5892af3

They get a "pass" because it's not March 7, 2020 or April 29, 2022, yet. You can argue that they are getting a pass if it was 2027 and Dish still has those licenses. Look up the licenses in question and you will see that the expiration date isn't today. But because Dish hasn't met the benchmarks they now have to tougher requirements to meet. Dish isn't going to get a pass, since the FCC knows when certification is due and will send reminders to the licensee. Once the expiration date passes and they haven't received certification, they lose the license and it goes up for auction again, without Dish as a participant.

Licenses are given out on "Use it, or lose it" basis..

AT&T and Verizon are accused constantly of spectrum squatting (something that is impossible in today's competitive environment for a carrier with actual customers in the balance) in the tech media because the tech media hates them but Dish gets a pass?

And, I believe they have to certify or the FCC does this, to verify that they are still using those licenses..
AT&T and Verizon doesn't get a pass just because they met the requirements.

Originally Posted by i0wnj00

https://www.forbes.com/sites/fredcam.../#65e6c5892af3

They get a "pass" because it's not March 7, 2020 or April 29, 2022, yet. You argue that they are getting a pass if it was 2027 and Dish still has those licenses.

Everything is legal. They've followed all the rules, been granted extensions. Not sure why anyone thinks they're doing something wrong.

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Originally Posted by HokieAl

Everything is legal. They've followed all the rules, been granted extensions. Not sure why anyone thinks they're doing something wrong.

You only get extensions which in effect modifies the build out requirements and/or benchmark date.
Once a license expires you lose the license and it gets re-auctioned for everybody else to bid on, sans the company who let the license expire.
NextWave lost their PCS licenses in this manner, they did nothing with them and failed benchmark after benchmark.

Originally Posted by i0wnj00

You only get extensions which in effect modifies the build out requirements and/or benchmark date.
Once a license expires you lose the license and it gets re-auctioned for everybody else to bid on, sans the company who let the license expire.
NextWave lost their PCS licenses in this manner, they did nothing with them and failed benchmark after benchmark.

DISH can't make that mistake. Too many billions riding on it. I think they're just holding out. I think they believe the merger will go through which means they have to hold out a bit longer.

Originally Posted by HokieAl

TMobile is squatting too.

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T-Mobile has been spectrum squatting since 2011? Exactly what spectrum has T-Mobile been in possession of for 8 years that they haven't start to use?

Originally Posted by i0wnj00

You only get extensions which in effect modifies the build out requirements and/or benchmark date.
Once a license expires you lose the license and it gets re-auctioned for everybody else to bid on, sans the company who let the license expire.
NextWave lost their PCS licenses in this manner, they did nothing with them and failed benchmark after benchmark.

NextWave licenses were auctioned off within 5 years of acquiring them.

Dish clocking nearly 8 years so far after making several claims re billion dollar network build outs that never materialized.

Originally Posted by offthegrid

T-Mobile has been spectrum squatting since 2011? Exactly what spectrum has T-Mobile been in possession of for 8 years that they haven't start to use?

They own spectrum nationwide. You can point to thousands of places where that spectrum isn't deployed. In other words, wherever they own spectrum that they're not using, that's squatting. No different than DISH. All the carriers are squatting. Any rural area where they own a license and aren't using it.

Originally Posted by HokieAl

They own spectrum nationwide. You can point to thousands of places where that spectrum isn't deployed. In other words, wherever they own spectrum that they're not using, that's squatting. No different than DISH. All the carriers are squatting. Any rural area where they own a license and aren't using it.

T-Mobile had licenses they didn't deploy on for years (e.g. parts of Nebraska) but the requirements were different for PCS and AWS than for low-band. The mid-band licenses only required a coverage for a certain percentage of the POPs in a license. This could frequently be accomplished by a single tower in the largest town in a rural license. I can't think of a single license where T-Mobile does not currently meet build-out requirements.

If you are claiming that T-Mobile doesn't cover every square inch of every license, no one does and no one is required to.

Dish has no network and their spectrum should be removed and resold ASAP. This is fraud to the taxpayers that we are funding Dish Network. They have had plenty or time to become operational


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