Sprint CTO: Spectrum is like crude oil – you could always use more

The spectrum crisis is a bit like peak oil: you can either call for more drilling, or build more efficient cars. That was one of the points made during Sprint CTO Stephen Bye’s fireside chat at GigaOM’s Mobilize 2012 conference in San Francisco. Asked about his competitors’ calls for more spectrum, Bye said: “Could we do with more spectrum? Absolutely. We could do with more crude oil.” But right now, Sprint is focused on repurposing its existing resources. One of these efforts is already underway as part of Sprint’s Network Vision initiative, which involves repurposing the carrier’s old 2G frequencies for its LTE network. “We definitely want to take advantage of the spectrum we have,” said Bye.