According to reports, the U.S. telecommunications industry is advancing the construction of 5G communication networks, and radio frequencies have become the focus of competition among manufacturers. On September 1 (Wednesday), the US telecommunications giant AT&T stated that it has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to add a special review procedure for the radio spectrum resources that can be used to build 5G networks to prevent telecommunications operators from having too much spectrum.
In the official blog post announcing this petition, AT&T did not talk about competitors in the telecommunications industry targeted by the aforementioned spectrum review process. CNBC said that if AT&T’s recommendations are adopted by regulation, it will have serious consequences for the company’s two major telecommunications competitors, namely T-Mobile and Verizon.
According to reports, two operators, T-Mobile and Verizon, have obtained a large amount of mid-band spectrum resources, which is very suitable for building 5G communication networks. Among them, T-Mobile previously acquired Sprint, a telecom subsidiary of Japan’s Softbank Group, and obtained a large amount of spectrum resource reserves. Verizon obtained a large number of spectrum licenses through an auction of telecom spectrum resources at the beginning of this year.
AT&T is also expanding its radio spectrum resources, but the huge debt burden has affected the company’s plans. In the US 5G communications market, the company is naturally unwilling to be at a competitive disadvantage. According to the media, if the regulator adds special spectrum review procedures, AT&T will be a major beneficiary.
Joan Marsh, AT&T’s vice president of Federal Regulatory Relations, wrote the above official blog post. He stated that the proposed review procedure for the mid-band is actually very similar to the existing procedures in other spectrums. And this review procedure does not impose upper limit control on the radio spectrum resources owned by a certain telecom operator.
Marsh said that this special review procedure will give the Federal Communications Commission an opportunity to closely monitor phenomena that may cause damage to fair competition in the market. The executive said that the FCC’s special review process should be initiated in the following circumstances, that is, in a specific market area, a telecommunications operator through mergers and acquisitions may obtain one-third of the local radio spectrum resources. He believes that if the relevant spectrum resources are in the hands of one or two telecom operators, it will harm the competition in the 5G mobile communication market.
Earlier, when T-Mobile, the third-ranked company in the US telecom market, proposed to acquire the fourth-ranked Sprint, the prosecutors in some Democratic-controlled states pointed out that the excessive concentration of spectrum resources in the hands of certain telecom operators would cause problems. However, the US Department of Justice during the Trump administration approved the acquisition, and the US court subsequently allowed the transaction to be completed.
For AT&T’s special review procedures for mid-band spectrum resources, representatives of the Federal Communications Commission, T-Mobile and Verizon have not yet commented.
