For 5G, AT & T and T-Mobile are buying a $ 1.8 billion, 24 GHz spectrum across the United States.

AT & T and T-Mobile have committed to spending close to $ 1.8 billion, combined, for the high-frequency spectrum of their 5G networks, as part of a bid from the Federal Communications Commission that sold wave licenses covering the entire US territory. Verizon is committed to spending $ 506 million in a separate 5G auction.

The AT & T winning bids at the 24 GHz auction totaled $ 982.5 million for 831 licenses in 383 partial economic zones (PEAs). This should cover most of the US as the FCC divides the country into 416 PEAs for auction purposes. This spectrum will be used by AT & T's actual 5G network, not the 4G network misleadingly called "5G E".

T-Mobile's winning offers totaled $ 803.2 million for 1,346 licenses in 400 PEAs.

The FCC revealed the winners list on Monday. In total, the 24 GHz auction included 2,909 licenses in 416 partial economic zones. Each license includes 100 MHz spectrum in the 24 GHz band. With a few small exceptions, seven blocks of 100 MHz were available in each of the 416 auctioned regions.

US Cellular will also spend $ 126.6 million for 282 licenses in 102 regions won at the 24 GHz auction. Starry – a wireless home Internet service provider – won 104 licenses in 48 zones for $ 48.5 million. Windstream was the second-highest bidder, spending $ 20.4 million on 116 licenses in 40 markets.

The FCC has completed the 24 GHz auction despite warnings from NASA, NOAA and the US Navy that the use of this specific frequency would adversely affect weather forecasts.

"This is because water vapor emits a weak signal in the atmosphere at a frequency (23.8 GHz) extremely close to that sold for next generation 5G wireless communications (24.8 GHz). GHz), "noted Wired. Meteorologists are concerned that 5G signals in the adjacent spectrum block will make it more difficult to detect traces of water vapor.

Verizon tops other 5G auctions

The 24 GHz auction ended on May 28th. The FCC also released Monday the list of winners of the auction at 28 GHz that ended in January. The FCC's procedures dictated that the full auction results for January could only be released after the end of the second auction.

Verizon dominated all the bidders at the 28 GHz auction, with winning bids totaling $ 505.7 million for 1,066 licenses in more than half of the geographic areas where the licenses were auctioned. The 28 GHz auction licenses were spread across 1,536 medium-sized markets, with each market obtaining two 425 MHz licenses each in the 28 GHz band. The 1,066 licenses from Verizon cover 863 of the 1,536 markets.

US Cellular is committed to paying $ 129.4 million for 408 licenses in 362 markets. T-Mobile also participated in the 28 GHz auction, spending $ 39.3 million for 865 licenses in 864 regions. Based on the prices paid per license, it seems that T-Mobile's new 28GHz licenses will be in less lucrative areas.

Verizon already had significant resources of 28 GHz before the auction. "The main mobile operator in the subscribers had to focus on [the 28GHz] auction to fill the gaps in licenses worth more than $ 3 billion that she had already purchased in connection with private purchases, "wrote the Wall Street Journal.

Broad spectrum blocks …

The 100 MHz and 425 MHz licenses contain much more spectrum than the licenses sold in previous 4G auctions. For example, an FCC auction in 2016 and 2017 included a total of 70 MHz for licensed use in the 600 MHz band, and the FCC auctioned it in blocks of 10 MHz each. The 4G LTE specification supports blocks up to 20 MHz each.

5G will be working on the lower bandwidth carriers used for 4G. But the hype of the 5G is mainly focused on the use of high frequency bands, which can produce faster speeds simply because there is more spectrum not used in the higher bands.

… but shorter signal ranges

The huge amount of available spectrum in the higher frequencies accompanies an important compromise: the signals do not travel as far and are easily blocked by walls and other obstacles. This is why operators have been looking for a spectrum below 1 GHz to cover the entire United States with 4G networks.

T-Mobile's chief technology officer, Neville Ray, recently warned that 5G networks using the higher frequencies of millimeter-wave "will never really be extended beyond small pockets of 5G hot spots in dense urban environments."

After Verizon's early launch of 5G in Chicago, network testers found rates greater than 600 Mbps in some areas but had difficulty detecting signals if they were not near a tower . The Verizon Chicago 5G service uses spectrum in the 28 GHz range.

Although T-Mobile acknowledges that high frequency networks do not offer extensive coverage, the phone company announced that it would deploy 5G nationwide using a combination of low frequencies, medium and high frequencies. T-Mobile is also seeking government approval for the purchase of Sprint, the fourth-largest carrier, which did not participate in the recent 24GHz and 28GHz auctions.

Sprint has launched 5G in four cities on a 2.5GHz spectrum already used for 4G. The Verge tested Sprint's 5G network in Dallas and found speeds from less than 100 Mbps to over 600 Mbps, with a wider range of signal than Verizon's initial 5G deployment.

Speaking to investors, Ray said T-Mobile "believes[s] in millimeters [spectrum]"For dense urban environments but" the software has not yet reached maturity ", according to a transcript of Seeking Alpha.He repeated that the spectrum of millimeter-wave" does not penetrate the walls [and] windows very well "and that it will not work well when you are" over 500, 600 feet from a small cell. "

"It is far more economical to deploy 5G spectrum in the middle band on the existing cell grid than to try to deploy hundreds and hundreds of thousands of small millimeter-wave cells to provide you with some kind of coverage and support. Experience, "says Ray.

Verizon's general manager Hans Vestburg spoke about millimeter-wave concerns over a phone call with investors, saying he "met our expectations for performance" but did not "fit a coverage spectrum ".

Hype "misaligned with economic reality"

Although the three major carriers apparently have enough high bandwidth to cover most of the country, this does not necessarily mean that they will install enough small cells to make it useful everywhere. Even 4G coverage is not really national among the major carriers, many people with slow speeds and rural operators trying to fill the gaps.

An eminent badyst in the telecommunications sector is skeptical of the significant investments of operators in 5G networks. "The hype is so devoid of alignment on the economic reality that there will inevitably be such a collapse of expectations and that people will talk about a failure," Craig Moffett told Axios. , founding partner of MoffettNathanson Research.

While Moffett described 5G as "an impressive next step for the network", he also stated that "there is no income utilization scenario for 5G yet", which makes it difficult to justify a gigantic investment for shareholders.

Verizon was going to charge $ 10 more per month to access the 5G, but then gave up the charge. Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT & T, recently said that prices for 5G would be similar to those of wired Internet, customers paying more for faster speeds. But he added that it would take "two or three years".