T-Mobile: Verizon doesn't need AWS spectrum it's trying to buy, because it hasn't used the AWS spectrum it already owns

At a meeting last week with Federal Communications Commission Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Chief Rick Kaplan, T-Mobile pointed out that Verizon already owns AWS spectrum that it has never used since acquiring it several years ago.

By all appearances, it's an attempt to undermine the company's talking point that it uses spectrum more efficiently than any other tier-one carrier in the country, and T-Mobile execs are bolstering their argument by pointing out that they'd make sure SpectrumCo's licenses were put to good use "immediately." Additionally, T-Mobile noted to Kaplan that Verizon's offer of a 700MHz sale in exchange for approval of the SpectrumCo acquisition has several problems, "including a lack of a national footprint in what Verizon is offering, interference from adjacent high-powered broadcasters, and lack of equipment and interoperability with the rest of the 700 MHz band." In many ways, this battle is shaping up to be the AT&T / T-Mobile acquisition of 2012, and ironically, T-Mobile is leading the opposition this time around.