Carriers prepare for battle to fill US spectrum pipeline

If everything goes their way, U.S. wireless carriers could see somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 MHz of spectrum flowing into the spectrum pipeline over the next four years. Based on previous transactions, that spectrum could be worth a cool $160 billion. That’s according to the analysts at New Street Research (NSR), who published a report spelling out exactly where this licensed spectrum would come from and how much carriers might be willing to pony up in order to acquire it. The operative words here are “if everything goes their way.” That’s because the wireless carriers aren’t the only ones champing at the bit for spectrum. The government’s spectrum requirements are growing alongside the needs of commercial wireless services, and advocates for unlicensed spectrum, like that used for Wi-Fi, always want more spectrum.