AT&T Mobility sees little need for network sharing

Similar to comments made earlier this week by a Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) executive, AT&T Mobility (T) does not appear to have interest in the network sharing rage that is currently sweeping the mobile industry.
Speaking this morning at the Credit Suisse Global Media and Communications Convergence Conference, AT&T Inc.’s SVP of Mobility Finance Pete Richter noted the company could see the benefits of such arrangements for some carriers, but added that they were not in the plans for AT&T Mobility.
Richter noted that while the carrier is “always considering everything,” that AT&T Mobility’s current spectrum position and network coverage were deep and diverse enough to shield it from having to partner with another carrier to expand its coverage and capacity. Richter also noted that “we clearly don’t have a lot of excess network capacity,” acknowledging claims that the carrier’s network is continuing to suffer in places due to strong mobile data demand.
Richter’s comments echoed those made by Verizon EVP and CTO Tony Melone at the same conference earlier this week.
“I really think that spectrum sharing is an interesting concept, or spectrum and network sharing is an interesting concept in theory,” Melone said. “I don’t think you have to look very far to see evidence that very, very few examples of where that has been effective for people. And where it has, it has been an environment where essentially the network is irrelevant to the value proposition. And we at Verizon feel like the network is at the core of the value proposition, so we don’t see that in our future. And again, Clearwire and Sprint and what you’ve seen there – there’s plenty evidence to suggest it’s very, very hard even for two players to coordinate, let alone three or four or five.”
Network sharing arrangements have been aggressively pursued by Clearwire Corp. and LightSquared for their burgeoning mobile broadband network plans and have received supporting comments from a number of smaller operators that currently lack a nationwide footprint or others that might not have the spectrum depth to deploy their own high-speed networks.
To further support the bolstering of its current network, Richter said that AT&T Mobility was continuing to add fiber backhaul capabilities to its network, claiming the carrier would have nearly its entire network covered by the end of the year. Those increased backhaul capabilities are core to the carrier’s “4G” claims for its current HSPA+ network and will also support its rollout of LTE services beginning later this year.