T-Mobile asked the FCC for early access to some of the 2.5 GHz licenses it recently won in Auction 108. In an application for Special Temporary Authority, the carrier says it wants to use “a subset” of the 7,156 licenses it won to augment existing 5G service by using equipment already deployed and operating in the band.
Authorizing the STA for “up to 60 days” as quickly as possible “will enhance capacity to meet ever-increasing consumer demand in many areas, including areas affected by extreme weather events where access to mobile broadband can aid recovery efforts,” says the carrier in its application. Though the carrier acknowledges the request is unusual, it says the situation involves “unique and compelling” facts that warrant relief.
The 2.5 GHz spectrum T-Mobile won at auction is interspersed in the same band with spectrum T-Mobile has already deployed for 5G mobile broadband. “The intermixture of newly won and operational [2.5 GHz] spectrum provides the Commission with a unique opportunity to significantly increase 5G mobile broadband capacity for consumers by allowing T-Mobile to simply expand the channel bandwidths that its previously deployed 5G equipment already supports,” it says. If, for some reason, the licenses are not actually awarded to the carrier, it can shut down the new operations.
T-Mobile believes the Commission’s process to act on long-form auction applications may take a while. Normally the delay between closing an auction and granting licenses does not postpone timely service because winning bidders use any application-processing delay to place equipment orders, secure site access, install equipment, and start to integrate new infrastructure into the architecture of existing networks. In the markets T-Mobile is talking about, however, it’s already deployed advanced 5G mobile broadband services in the 2.5 GHz band, and says it can launch operations “without delay and without deploying new infrastructure.”
“Allowing immediate, short-term use of otherwise fallow spectrum for mobile broadband operations will allow T-Mobile to improve U.S. consumers’ mobile broadband experience without risking harmful interference or displacing any other spectrum users,” the company says. Given the needs of displaced residents impacted by Hurricane Ian, T-Mobile says activating idle 2.5 GHz spectrum on already deployed infrastructure will enable it to rapidly accommodate ongoing demand surges and demand displacement.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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