Posted by: Joan Marsh on June 17, 2013 at 11:09 am
In recent months, there has been a renewed push to drive a regulatory mandate to address the interoperability issues that challenge the lower 700 MHz band. Perhaps acknowledging that a Band 12 mandate ignores the interference concerns present in the band, the small carriers are now arguing that B and C block licensees should be required to support both Band 17 and Band 12 in all the devices they offer. Setting aside the fact that this would require carriers like AT&T that own only B and C block licenses to support a band class that they don’t need and won’t use, a Dual Band mandate would fall far short of solving the interoperability challenge and raises a host of new problems.
At the outset, such a requirement would needlessly add material extra cost and complexity to devices. A Dual Band mandate would require AT&T to equip every device we offer with both Band 12 and Band 17 components. The result: inferior performance, form factor limitations and more cost – which would adversely affect competitiveness and user experience – all to enable operations on a block of spectrum that we don’t own.
Moreover, AT&T is already pushing the envelope on how many bands we can accommodate in our devices. Devices today are tightly engineered to achieve the small form factor that consumers desire, and even the smallest change in components can have substantial impacts on form factor and performance. And the majority of radio chipsets in use today support only three bands below 1 GHz. AT&T already must support Band 17 (700 MHz B and C Blocks), Band 5 (800 MHz), and Band 29 (700 MHz D and E Blocks) just to cover its LTE requirements, not to mention the need for ports to support legacy technologies and international roaming. In short, there are no ports to spare for unnecessary chipsets and, if we were forced to support Band 12, something else would likely have to go.
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Posted by: Bob Quinn on June 5, 2013 at 9:22 am
The recent CTIA show in Las Vegas featured policy speeches by the three current FCC Commissioners – Acting Chairwoman Clyburn and Commissioners Rosenworcel and Pai – each of whom offered thoughts on how we can keep the U.S. the world leader in mobile broadband deployment. Acting Chairwoman Clyburn led the show by declaring her intent to keep the agency moving forward during her tenure and, much to the CTIA crowd’s delight, she focused on the continuing spectrum challenges we face and the role of effective spectrum policy in mobile innovation and U.S. competitiveness. We support her continuing leadership on these issues and stand ready to work with her office on the entire range of proceedings underway at the FCC designed to drive more efficient spectrum utilization.
The upcoming spectrum auctions were also the focus of speeches by Commissioners Rosenworcel and Pai.
First, Commissioner Rosenworcel offered 10 ideas for progress now. Her first ideas were straight-forward but important – keep policy focused on consumers, and keep the auction process simple and open. Commissioner Rosenworcel observed that a simple and open auction process should drive rules that make it easy for broadcasters to participate, that treat broadcasters who remain fairly and that raise sufficient revenue to build and support the nation’s first interoperable, mobile broadband public safety network.
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Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on May 24, 2013 at 2:25 pm
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Charles Schumer has reintroduced the Mobile Device Theft Deterrence Act, which would make it a federal crime to tamper with the unique identification number (IMEI) of a wireless device. The following statement may be attributed to Tim McKone, AT&T Executive Vice President of Federal Relations:
“AT&T applauds Senator Schumer for reintroducing legislation to help deter the theft of wireless communications devices. The Mobile Device Theft Deterrence Act is a critical component in helping law enforcement and wireless carriers address the growing issue of stolen devices. Last year, we launched a website to help educate our customers on how to protect their wireless devices, and we created a stolen phone database which prevents devices reported stolen by our customers from working on our network. We thank the Senator for his tireless efforts in this area and we look forward to working with him and his colleagues as this legislation moves forward.”
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