T-Mobile CEO: Most Important Item In Next Spectrum Auction Is To Ensure Competitive Wireless In Future

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T-Mobile US Inc TMUS CEO John Legere recently wrote a blog post in which he lambasted FCC’s recent spectrum allocation in which 94 percent of the licenses on offer were purchased by three companies: AT&T Inc. T, Verizon Communications Inc. VZ and DISH Network Corp DISH. He argued that this will be bad for smartphone users as they will have limited options to choose from and will have to shell out higher fees.

Legere was on CNBC to discuss why the recent spectrum allocation was bad for consumers and the low-band spectrum auction expected to be conducted in 2016.

“The low-band spectrum auction that’s going to be coming in early 2016 is pinnacle for the American consumer,” Legere said. “And I put out a blog out yesterday that is helping all American consumers. Look, what happened in AWS 3 auctions where of the carriers that were participating, they won 93 percent of the mid-band spectrum, 72 percent if you]had Dish on the side and what they proved is they will use one of their biggest competitive weapons – economic prowess, to sweep the table.”

He continued, “We had the best mid-band spectrum; we have spent $1.7 billion on 151 licenses. So, it was a good portfolio addition for us, but now the government got $45 billion worth of cash from that auction, solved the public safety issues. In auction No. 2, the most important item is to ensure competitive wireless in the future.”

Won’t The Other Big Players Want To Push The Low-Band Auction To 2017?

“Why would the big guys want to push it out? I’ll give you two good reasons: we want a different administration and we just spent a boat load of money and we want to reload -- bad, bad reasons. And so for us we want it to be now, we want it to be soon,” Legere answered.

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Posted In: CNBCTechMediaJohn Legere
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