Spectrum - Crunching the Numbers

Verizon Wireless is purchasing Advanced Wireless Spectrum (AWS) licenses from SpectrumCo and Cox to ensure that our customers get the fast, reliable service they expect from their 4G devices. This purchase is clearly in the public interest. It puts unused spectrum into the hands of 109 million consumers who will use it for high-quality wireless broadband service on Verizon’s 4G LTE-enabled smartphones, tablets, and other devices.

But why does Verizon need more spectrum? The answer has become one of the big policy debates in Washington and across the country: the coming spectrum crunch. As more and more consumers use more and more wireless devices, additional spectrum capacity is needed for video-streaming, video-chatting, music, video and other content downloads, and any number of applications that require fast and reliable wireless broadband connections. Today, we serve approximately 109 million wireless connections, more than any other wireless provider in the U.S. Those connections are serviced with a nationwide spectrum license base that averages 88 megahertz of spectrum. That means, on average, Verizon uses one megahertz of spectrum to serve 1.2 million customer connections. Should the AWS spectrum transfer be approved, these wireless connections would be served using an average of 109 MHz nationwide, with one megahertz of spectrum serving almost one million customer connections. Verizon is 2-times more efficient with our spectrum than T-Mobile. While Verizon Wireless services 109 million connections with an average of 88 megahertz, T-Mobile has 50 MHz to serve 33 million customers. Both Verizon and T-Mobile have spectrum licensed nationwide, which means, as I mention above, Verizon serves 1.2 million customers on average per megahertz, while T-Mobile serves only half that with 660,000 per megahertz.