Qualcomm has met with the Federal Communications Commission recently to request that the agency grant AT&T final approval to purchase Qualcomm’s 700Hz spectrum assets. The spectrum sale was first proposed a year ago, and then stalled in August when the FCC decided to look at the 700MHz spectrum acquisition and AT&T’s proposed T-Mobile acquisition together.
The FCC recently decided that it will approve the sale of the 700MHz spectrum from Qualcomm to AT&T, but has yet to finalize the matter. “Swift FCC approval now is critical to enable the deployment of new supplemental downlink technology on fallow unpaired spectrum and to realize the substantial public interest benefits created by the transaction,” Qualcomm stated. AT&T intends to use the 700MHz spectrum, formerly used for Qualcomm’s failed MediaFLO service, to supplement its own 700MHz spectrum and Long Term Evolution network.
