Brookings Panel Debates Wireless Spectrum Policy, AT&T-T-Mobile Deal

The Brookings Institution assembled leading telecommunications experts and business representatives to discuss the future of spectrum policy and the impending merger between AT&T and T-Mobile.

“Mobile broadband is exploding in demand,” said James Cicconi, Senior Executive Vice President-External and Legislative Affairs at AT&T at the start the discussion. “By 2015 we expect our network to carry 19 billion exabytes of data which is equivalent to 400 quadrillion DVDs annually.” Cicconi proceeded to explain why AT&T views the merger between it and T-Mobile a necessity to solve the spectrum crisis. He stated that T-Mobile currently lacks the necessary spectrum licenses to create a 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network and its parent company Deutsche Telekom does not have the capital necessary to buy more licenses. “We already carry more wireless data than any other company,” Cicconi said. “When we acquire the additional spectrum owned by T-Mobile we will be able to expand our 4G network to cover 95 percent of the population.” Former Broadband Plan Executive Director, Blair Levin, called access 4G “critical” and said that mobile broadband is vital to future economic growth. Levin went onto say that a spectrum crunch will occur if broadcasters do not sell off some of their holdings, but he opposed taking spectrum away from the owners without proper compensation. “The best way to reallocate spectrum is with voluntary incentive auctions,” Levin said, “but if the current owners are not able to profit from the auction no one will participate.”