T-Mobile CFO Braxton Carter said the Uncarrier is making plans to participate in next year’s incentive auction and it will be on the hunt for low-band spectrum.
Carter indicated the company has as much as $10 billion to spend on spectrum, though it expects to spend much less than that to get what it needs to expand coverage. T-Mobile is being aided by the FCC, which set aside 30MHz of spectrum for smaller companies.
“Never in the history of the U.S. has there been an auction where there has been a set aside of spectrum for the competitive carriers,” said Carter. “It’s such a victory for us” and “sets up amazing pricing dynamics. I think this will be a robust auction.”
T-Mobile hopes to score enough 600MHz spectrum to fill in the coverage gaps where it doesn’t already have 700MHz low-band spectrum. T-Mobile’s 700MHz A Block allows it to cover approximately 190 million people with LTE. The company’s grand plan is to be able to provide a national footprint.
