Signs are popping up that carriers are getting closer to making use of the spectrum they acquired in the advanced wireless services auction last year.
T-Mobile USA Inc. confirmed that it has begun offering its first 3G handset to customers in New York, although the operator does not plan to launch its UMTS network in that city until the first half of next year.
T-Mobile USA’s sale of the Samsung Corp. SGH-T639 handset ($200 MSRP, $30 with a two-year contract) signals its first foray into 3G. The quad-band handset is also capable of using 1.7 MHz spectrum and will be one of the first handsets to be able to access T-Mobile USA’s planned 3G network, according to the carrier. The T639 received approval from the Federal Communications Commission in July, according to FCC documents.
T-Mobile USA was the biggest bidder in last year’s AWS auction, purchasing 120 licenses for nearly $4.2 billion in order to beef up its spectrum position and support the launch of a 3G network. T-Mobile USA is the only one of the four national carriers that does not have a cellular high-speed data network.
Leap in Las Vegas
Meanwhile, Leap Wireless International Inc. appears to be edging closer to a service launch in Las Vegas. The company’s online coverage maps indicate that the Vegas market is a future coverage area and Leap has posted a variety of job ads seeking employees in the Las Vegas market, including retail managers.
Raymond James analyst Ric Prentiss noted that although Leap has not gone its usual pre-launch route of indicating that a market is “coming soon”-which has typically translated to a launch within three to four weeks-he said that retail sales reps are usually the last to be hired before a launch.
Prentiss said that given Las Vegas’ population growth rate and demographics, the market could be a “very successful market for an unlimited airtime carrier like Leap.”
“We are encouraged that the company does not appear to be running into significant difficulties clearing its AWS spectrum in Las Vegas,” Prentiss added.
Leap spokesman Greg Lund said the company had not broken out Las Vegas and that the market “still fits with the rest of the Auction 66 properties.” The company has said that it plans to begin launching its AWS markets in the first half of 2008. Leap and its bidding partner spent almost $1.1 billion on 100 AWS spectrum licenses.
Lund said that the company was working with the government agencies that have been using the spectrum and incremental progress was being made with spectrum clearing.
