AT&T has received the final approval it needs to create a nationwide 4G band for its own private consumption. On Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission vote 5-0 in favor of Chairman Julius Genachowski’s proposal to turn previously useless 2.3 GHz Wireless Communications Services (WCS) airwaves into a band fit for LTE.
As I’ve explained in previous posts, the big problem with WCS was the potential interference a high-powered cellular network would wreck upon Sirius XM’s neighboring satellite radio signals. But AT&T and Sirius hashed out a compromise that would turn 10 MHz of the WCS airwaves into a guard bands on either side of Sirius’s spectrum, ensuring that Ozzy’s Boneyard and Howard Stern would remain protected from AT&T terrestrial mobile data signals. AT&T is then left with 20 MHz of spectrum free and clear.
The only remaining obstacle for AT&T is to consolidate the remaining WCS airwaves still owned by other operators. For Ma Bell’s plan to work it effectively has to own the entire spectrum band.
