AT&T, US Cellular at Odds on 700 MHz Interference

Commissioner Mignon Clyburn has been the strongest advocate for mobile device interoperability on the Federal Communications Commission and now that she has been appointed acting chairwoman – a position she could hold for several months – AT&T saw fit to reiterate its arguments against interoperability in the lower 700 MHz spectrum band in a blog post.

“AT&T has conducted rigorous testing and engineering analyses, and those tests and analyses make very clear that at typical real-world power levels, Channel 51 transmissions would substantially degrade our LTE service – creating LTE ‘no call zones’ – if AT&T were required to use chipsets that enabled A-block receptions,” wrote AT&T Senior Vice President – Federal Regulatory Bob Quinn. US Cellular, however, has deployed devices using the exact chipset AT&T is fighting and a U.S. Cellular spokeswoman told Telecompetitor that the company has not experienced the problem that AT&T describes.