DigitalBurn.com

Recently, T-Mobile sent Chief Technology and Innovation Officer Cole Brodman to Washington, DC to plead with the FCC.  His case centers around the FCC’s controversial plan to auction off a nationwide block of spectrum that would require the licensee to offer free broadband services.  In meeting with the FCC, T-Mobile’s Brodman said that the company is simply “asking the FCC essentially to slow down and give the industry some time to do some testing.”

T-Mobile argues that, should the AWS-3 spectrum be licensed, it would interfere with its own AWS spectrum that it won last year.   T-Mobile paid nearly $4.2 billion in the AWS spectrum auction and it plans to use the AWS spectrum to roll out UMTS in 26 markets by the end of the year.

The FCC proposal is the combination of the 2155 to 2175 MHz band with the 2175 MHz to 2180 MHz band to create a 25-megahertz swathe of spectrum that would support a nationwide license, known as advanced wireless services-3 (AWS-3).  The licensee would have to dedicate 25 percent of its network capacity to free broadband service, install a network-based internet filtering solution to block pornography, and allow open access to third-party services.

A delay on the proposal for the spectrum auction is likely. Recently FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said that the sale of this spectrum could be put off until early next year.  The plan was proposed by M2Z Networks, which is anxious to move ahead with the auction since it is currently operating on venture capital.

[via FierceWireless]

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