WASHINGTON — Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. — three of the biggest winners in the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s recently completed 700-MHz auction — have announced plans for the spectrum they’ve won, with two of the companies focused on expanding their wireless voice and data networks.
Verizon and AT&T will both use the spectrum for high-speed, fourth-generation wireless services.
Qualcomm won eight spectrum licenses in the 6-MHz E block, including spectrum covering the Boston, Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia areas. The company will use the spectrum it bought for $554.6 million to expand its FLO TV service, which offers video over mobile devices. Qualcomm now offers FLO TV to areas containing 68 million people, and the new spectrum will allow the service to reach 130 million people in the U.S., Qualcomm said.
The E block licenses will allow Qualcomm to deliver more video content over FLO TV, Qualcomm said. Qualcomm also won three 12-MHz B block licenses, at a cost of $3.5 million, near three Qualcomm research and development centers in California and New Jersey.
The FCC auction of spectrum in the 700-MHz band raised more than $19 billion for the 1,090 spectrum licenses sold. The spectrum will be available to winning bidders in February 2009, when U.S. television stations must abandon the spectrum and move to all-digital broadcasts.
Source: ComputerWorld