Verizon Outbids AT&T For Nationwide 5G Wireless Spectrum (theverge.com) 34
Verizon has agreed to pay $3.1 billion for wireless spectrum holder Straight Path Communications, beating out rival AT&T, which had offered to buy Straight Path for $1.6 billion in stock. Verizon's acquisition will give it access to the frequencies necessary to build a 5G network across the U.S. The Verge reports: The news that AT&T was aiming to buy the Glen Allen, VA-based Straight Path was first reported last month, prompting a bidding war between the carriers that the WSJ describes as "unusually intense." Straight Path's purchase gives Verizon access to millimeter wave frequencies that are set to be used by 5G networks across the United States, making it a useful purchase from the start. Experts have also noted that the company's owner may also be afforded even more spectrum in future auctions with the FCC, potentially giving Verizon access to the entire 39GHz band down the line.
Well now, this can't be good (Score:3)
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I'm guessing that once they deploy 5G, all the phones on their network would have to be VoLTE enabled to use it, right? Else, it would defeat the purpose.
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Bye Bye fiber, we loved you so (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: Bye Bye fiber, we loved you so (Score:3)
You're assuming that current bandwidth demands are adequate for future technology. At one point it 56kbps was considered fast. I'd argue that we've yet to invent the next bandwidth hogging media. It's going to make Netflix look like a joke. FIOS is still necessary to offload the wireless spectrum.
Re: Bye Bye fiber, we loved you so (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re: Bye Bye fiber, we loved you so (Score:1)
Verizon wouldn't be the only one. AT&T is done with building out their fiber network as well. They are both banking on high speed wireless rather than wired connections due to the costs. A mistake but that's where they are going.
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Interesting we are the only 39GHz user in our area (Score:4, Interesting)
About a year ago we got approached by Straight-Path with a deal. They would give us a pair of 39GHz radios if we would deploy them in this area. Seems no one in this area was using any of their licensed 39GHz spectrum and they were at risk of losing their license due to non-use. It is spectrum that is rather hard to utilize in any area that gets much rain. Links over 1 mile with even 2 foot dishes would drop in even moderate rain (too much absorption), and a wet leaf would almost completely block the signal. This is the reason almost no one in Florida uses this spectrum. I can't imagine what Verizon thinks they can do with it as it's seems useless for providing any kind of cell service. Even if used to back haul point to point links it's range is extremely limited.
We did in the end enter the deal and deploy them on a 300 meter link that has perfect line of sight. At that range they work pretty well.
Yet another article about RF without info (Score:2)
Regrettable, more CDMA. (Score:3)
As someone who has been an international GSM Traveller, it makes me sick how the US Doubles down on CDMA. CDMA is severely patent encumbered, only one company can legally make CDMA Radios. CDMA is not supported outside the US.
CDMA makes getting unlocked Phones prohibitively expensive. The carriers charge more, its just a big scam. If the FCC carried about USians, they would mandate GSM for all carriers, and discontinue CDMA
Re: Regrettable, more CDMA. (Score:2)
No doubt.
Here in Saskatchewan, Canada, our government owned carrier gave up on CDMA about 10 years ago, and finally shut down the CDMA radios about a year ago.
I like being able to change carriers by swapping the SIM out. My next phone will be Dual-SIM for sure.
Carrier locked phones are still a problem, but there is a fairly big market online of factory unlocked phones so my needs are covered.
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Verizon just uses CDMA as an excuse to get their branding, apps, etc. on their phones, and except for the occasion when VoLTE doesn't work, all modern verizon phones run pretty much exclusively over LTE (which is a GSM system and uses a SIM card).
On Verizon, I've often left my android phone in LTE-only mode (as opposed to the default LTE/GSM/CDMA auto setting in the android "Phone Testing" app) and noticed no issues except sometimes I can't make regular phone calls out of network.
AT&T and T-Mobile have
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Nobody should "own" spectrum (Score:3)
Selling a shared resource for a private corporation to profit off of is a bad idea, and rarely works out well.