DT CEO Says U.S. Must Move Quickly to Provide More Spectrum for Broadband

LAS VEGAS -- Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann Wednesday echoed concerns voiced by AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson the day before (CD March 24 p1) at the CTIA show about the need for the U.S. to steer clear of imposing new regulations on the wireless industry. Obermann, whose company is the parent of T-Mobile USA, also called on the FCC to bring new spectrum online for wireless broadband as quickly as possible. Competition and a light-handed approach on regulation “have served the U.S. wireless customer very well,” he said. “I am optimistic that American policymakers will want to continue this trend to ensure continued growth and investments going forward. So far, the regulatory approach has paid off."

The German carrier is pleased with proposals in the National Broadband Plan that would provide an additional 500 MHz for wireless broadband within the next 10 years. “It’s just a great signal because it enables future broadband growth in the United States and it will really help customer innovation,” he said. “However, timing … is very critical. The U.S., given the aggressive growth currently in wireless Internet, in my modest opinion, should move as fast as possible to assign or to make large amounts of spectrum available."

In Germany, next month the government is selling off licenses for an additional 360 MHz, Obermann said. “That’s the biggest single spectrum auction ever and I believe that it will stimulate investments in wireless.” He said T-Mobile USA is catching up with its competitors after making a big move in the AWS-1 auction to buy spectrum. “Despite being a relatively late starter into the 3G game we have now nearly caught up with our peers,” he said.

"Spectrum is a very, very valuable resource,” said Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse, who also spoke to the CTIA conference Wednesday morning. “With the additional bandwidth that’s going to be required for 4G networks and 5G networks [the wireless industry] is going to need more spectrum.” He was asked by CTIA President Steve Largent why Sprint opted to build out a high-speed network using WiMAX technology instead of the LTE standard being adopted by most other carriers. “In essence, it was time to market,” he said. “WIMAX was a tried, true, tested, working 4G technology.” LTE “most likely” will see more deployment, he conceded. “But for us, we couldn’t wait. Time to market was very important and that was the key issue."

In another CTIA keynote, John Stanton, former CEO of Western Wireless, urged the Haitian government to put more emphasis on wireless and forget about rebuilding its damaged copper lines. Stanton is chairman of Trilogy International, parent of Voila, Haiti’s second largest wireless carrier. “By deploying state-of-the-art wireless systems, we enable less-developed countries to leapfrog older technologies, and those systems become the foundation for a new economy,” he said.