Courting Disaster in the Name of Spectrum Efficiency

[Commentary] A lot of myths were perpetuated by some witnesses at the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing regarding AT&T's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile. Public Knowledge argued that AT&T should “stop operating” three different types of technologies, a system which they view as “inefficient” and spectrally “wasteful.” What would that look like?

First, AT&T would promptly shut down its 2G GSM network – a network that currently supports tens of millions of devices, including handsets for our pre-paid products that are particularly important to fixed and low income customers. As a result, all those handsets would go dark and that customer base would be required to go purchase new mobile broadband (UMTS) handsets, which are generally more expensive. We would also strand all our wholesale partners that are buying capacity on our GSM platform, and who in turn offer competitive retail products. In short, the results would be devastating for millions of wireless consumers.