Sprint To FCC: Count Me Out On Auction

The wireless carrier says it doesn't need to buy more spectrum. It can increase its coverage and capacity by "densifying" its network and increasing the number of cell sites.

By Staff | September 27, 2015 | 10:41 p.m. ET.

If the FCC goes ahead with its auction of TV spectrum to wireless carriers next year as planned, Sprint will not be among the bidders.

“After thorough analysis,” the carrier announced, it has decided that it has sufficient spectrum to meet current and future demand without having to buy more.

“Sprint’s focus and overarching imperative must be on improving its network and market position in the immediate term so we can remain a powerful force in fostering competition, consumer benefits and innovation in the wireless broadband world,” said Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said in a statement.

“Sprint has the spectrum it needs to deploy its network architecture of the future.”

Sprint said it is increasing coverage and capacity “by densifying its network and increasing the number of cell sites” with existing spectrum.

Sprint said it is more critical than ever for the FCC to undertake timely special access reform, including pricing, terms and conditions.

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Ellen Samrock says:

September 28, 2015 at 12:51 pm

Verizon has said that it has all the spectrum it needs. AT&T and T-Mobile won’t participate unless certain conditions are met. And now Sprint is bowing out of the 600 MHz auction. Can it get any worse? Yes. Then we have engineers on both sides who have given a big collective thumbs down to the FCC’s plan to put stations in the duplex gap, Greg Walden as head of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology reminding Tom Wheeler that giving preference to unlicensed users over licensed broadcasters is illegal, lobbyist organizations threatening to sue if the FCC goes ahead and does that and Mexico setting a clearing target of only 84 MHz. To top it off, we have the Commission backpedaling on the reimbursement figures in the Greenhill Report. This behemoth Rube Goldberg contraption laughingly referred to as the Incentive Auction will come lumbering out of the gate the first quarter of 2016 only to pull up lame and hobble to the finish. Time will tell the true devastation to the broadcast television industry this auction will have wrought. Broadcasters who participated may get the shaft. But, hey, Wheeler and the FCC will declare it a success simply because they ran it.