AT&T announced this morning that it is buying spectrum licenses covering 196 million people in the 700 MHz frequency band from Aloha Partners, the Providence, RI-based broadband wireless company that is (so far) this single largest license holder of the invaluable, invisible radio spectrum real estate.
Aloha owns, and AT&T will acquire, 12 MHz of spectrum in 281 markets, including 72 of the top 100 markets and all ten of the top ten markets. Through its Hiwire subsidiary, Aloha has been testing the high-powered spectrum (far more efficient for delivering high-bandwidth content such as video over longer distances) in Las Vegas for the mobile delivery of fully streamed, multiple cable channels including seven channels from Discovery Communications, six channels from MTV networks and two channels from Turner Broadcasting, among other TV programmers in the test-bed line-up. Aloha is also testing wireless broadband delivery over its spectrum in Phoenix.
Aloha amassed this spectrum during the FCC's auction of "lower band" 700 MHz spectrum in 2001 and 2003, and through subsequent acquisitions of other 700 MHz license holders. The next round of 700 MHz auctions, the upper band auctions, has turned into a mighty fight between Google and the mobile carriers, particularly Verizon, over the degree to which the spectrum will be closed or open to various content, application or handset technology providers.
However the open access issues work themselves out, with this deal AT&T is now the single largest owner of 700 MHz spectrum in the nation and is poised to become a potent force in mobile broadband communications. What happens to Aloha is less clear. Based on the press release, it sounds like AT&T is buying all the spectrum the company owns. This probably means the two top executives, Charles Townsent and Scott Wills, along with their backers, walk away rich, happy and unemployed.
Cynthia Brumfield at 8:38 AM|Comments(0)
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