Phil Goldstein

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said he does not see the carrier going head-to-head in the near-term with the likes of Comcast, Verizon Communications and AT&T in the market for wired home broadband Internet access.

Hesse's comments, made during a Sprint meeting with industry analysts and relayed by an analyst, stand in contrast to the long-term vision of Sprint Chairman and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, who has said Sprint could eventually compete in and shake up the wired broadband market in the US. According to Jackdaw Research analyst Jan Dawson, Hesse said that Sprint isn't planning to go after the home broadband market actively, and that it would be difficult to make money in that market, especially given how much video wired broadband customers tend to use.

AT&T, for instance has said its average, non-U-verse broadband customers use around 21 GB of data per month; overall average monthly usage on North American fixed access networks was 51.4 GB, according to a May study from network vendor Sandvine. Those numbers are much bigger than the average monthly data consumption by wireless phone users.

Dawson said that Sprint is simply focused on other business priorities right now and does not plan to aggressively compete in the home broadband market. He said that such a plan is "not on the roadmap" right now but could be somewhere down the line as the carrier expands its Spark service and increases speeds. For now though, Dawson said, Hesse was acknowledging that Sprint's spectrum position and the realities of deploying Spark make it infeasible to actually enact Son's vision.

"The difference is between the strategic vision Masa Son is laying and the operational reality of running the Sprint business today with the spectrum holdings they have," he said.

The deal-making chess pieces are being moved around in the telecom industry, and one financial analyst thinks the next move might be for Comcast to make a bid for T-Mobile US.

According to a research note from UBS analyst John Hodulik, AT&T's proposed deal to buy DirecTV for $49 billion, and the implications that has for mobile video delivery, "could be the final straw that draws Comcast into the wireless mix."

Hodulik notes that Comcast's current wireless strategy leverages Wi-Fi deployments and a Verizon Wireless resale deal.

"While this may be a capital-efficient way to put a toe in the water, we believe it is not a long term strategy," he wrote. "In our opinion, this could eventually lead to the acquisition of T-Mobile -- if it is still independent. Initial moves to execute on a Wi-Fi-MVNO strategy will inevitably spark the speculation that Comcast will indeed need to go further and put a still-independent T-Mobile back on the merger target list were the SoftBank deal to be rejected."

AT&T Mobility will likely be adding between 1,500 and 3,000 macro cell sites to its network per year for the next few years as part of a wide-ranging effort to beef up its network and improve coverage and capacity, according to a senior AT&T executive.

Bill Smith, president of AT&T network operations, said the carrier would be adding that many sites to its network per year "for the foreseeable future." That will likely happen in parallel with AT&T's deployment of new spectrum bands for LTE service, such as the 2.3 GHz WCS band or AWS-3 band, which the Federal Communications Commission will be auctioning later in 2014.

US Cellular is signaling its opposition to a draft Federal Communications Commission plan for bidding rules for the 2015 incentive auction of 600 MHz broadcast TV spectrum, potentially driving a wedge between it and other smaller carriers.

In a recent FCC filing, US Cellular said it doesn't want the FCC to reserve spectrum in the auction for carrier's that don't have large low-band spectrum holdings.

"We indicated that given a choice between the current proposal and a proposal that did not differentiate between reserved and unreserved spectrum, that we would prefer the latter," the carrier wrote.

US Cellular noted that "a failure to obtain sufficient 600 MHz spectrum could materially limit our ability to deploy 5G services to our existing customer base within a competitive timeframe." The carrier also said that "any proposal to limit access to restricted spectrum during the auction must assess each carrier's spectrum holdings in the aggregate and only then, if above one-third nationwide, apply a market-by-market spectrum holdings analysis."

Crucially, US Cellular added: "Failure to adopt such a proposal will significantly limit our ability to bid for reserve spectrum across a substantial portion of our operating markets, including many of our key strategic markets."

The lobbying fight is heating up over whether the Federal Communications Commission will approve rules that could limit how much spectrum Verizon Wireless and AT&T can bid on in the 2015 incentive auction of 600 MHz broadband spectrum.

T-Mobile US has fired the latest salvo, arguing that the FCC has the authority to issue such rules and that they will enhance competition, not lead to the failure of the auction. Verizon and AT&T have said in their recent filings to the commission that they are going to fight any rules that could restrict their bidding.

In its own filing to the FCC summarizing meetings its executives had with FCC officials, T-Mobile noted that Congress vested the FCC with authority to set auction rules and that it is "not required to allow every carrier to bid for every megahertz of a spectrum band that is made available for auction.” T-Mobile argued that "access to low-band spectrum and the economies of scale that greater access would enable represent two of the most pressing needs T-Mobile must satisfy if the company is to continue to play as disruptive a role in the market for the benefit of consumers as it has played over the last two years."

In discussing the proposed rules, T-Mobile wrote that "the prospect of having more demand than supply should come as welcome news to anyone concerned about generating sufficient auction revenues or generating large payments to broadcast licensees." In the filing, T-Mobile argued that more competitive bidding "not only increases revenue, but it will encourage AT&T and Verizon to increase overall bidding in order to clear more spectrum and avoid a lack of supply. This not only increases the amount paid to broadcasters, but increases the number of broadcasters that receive payment."

AT&T Mobility is seeking to buy more 700 MHz and AWS spectrum, indicating that even as it pushes for more airwave through auctions it is still intent on gobbling up spectrum on the secondary market.

AT&T applied to the Federal Communications Commission to approve three separate spectrum transactions. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.

In all of the transactions, AT&T is arguing the spectrum will let it "augment network capacity, better accommodate its overall growth and facilitate the provision of additional products and services to its customers in the markets that the transaction would affect" as well as generally bolster its LTE network.

In the first deal, AT&T wants to get from NTCH and its affiliate WGH Communications 12 MHz of Lower 700 MHz B Block spectrum in 18 counties in six Cellular Market Areas ("CMAs") across parts of Georgia, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas. In a second deal for 700 MHz spectrum, AT&T wants to get from MilkyWay Broadband 12 MHz of Lower 700 MHz C Block spectrum in 71 counties in 15 CMAs across parts of Florid a, Georgia, New Jersey, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Virginia. In the third deal for AWS spectrum, AT&T wants to get from the Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative 20 MHz of AWS-1 A Block spectrum in nine counties in CMAs in parts of Minnesota and North Dakota.

Verizon Wireless and Dish Network are battling over whether the forthcoming auction of AWS-3 spectrum should include rules that require interoperability with Dish's AWS-4 airwaves.

The debate comes on the eve of a Federal Communications Commission vote on spectrum licensing rules for the AWS-3 auction. Verizon argues that there has not been enough time to study whether an interoperability requirement is feasible, while Dish argues such a requirement would allow it to deploy its spectrum to more easily and enhance its desire to bid for AWS-3 spectrum.

The FCC will vote on the rules for the AWS-3 auction during its March 31 open meeting. The FCC is proposing to auction the 1695-1710 MHz, 1755-1780 MHz, and 2155-2180 MHz bands, collectively known as AWS-3.

AT&T is poised to complete its acquisition of Cricket provider Leap Wireless and Leap's 4.57 million customers.

The transaction is the latest in a long line of consolidation in the wireless industry that has removed players ranging from MetroPCS to Clearwire to Alltel. But it's unclear what will happen next. The AT&T/Leap deal leaves US Cellular as the clear No. 5 US carrier.

However, there is a major gap between US Cellular and the Tier 1 carriers, and then between US Cellular and other, smaller players. US Cellular ended the fourth quarter with around 4.77 million total customers. Due to the spectrum sales, US Cellular is not an obvious acquisition target, especially because it has continued to bleed subscribers. US Cellular lost 71,000 postpaid customers and 26,000 prepaid subscribers in the fourth quarter, for total net losses of 97,000 customers. Morgan Stanley noted that marked the 15th straight quarter it lost postpaid subscribers. US Cellular's outlook is decidedly unclear.

T-Mobile US warned the Federal Communications Commission not to structure the upcoming AWS-3 spectrum auction in such a way that it would tilt the playing field toward AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

AT&T recently praised a tentative, but not final, license structure and band plan for the auction. The back and forth highlights the importance of the auction and also how the carriers are going to continue to fight over spectrum policy and auction design for months to come.

The AWS-3 auction fight is notable in light of the fact that T-Mobile has lobbied for years for the FCC and other federal agencies to cobble together the spectrum that will be auctioned. Kathleen Ham, vice president of federal regulatory affairs at T-Mobile, wrote that the FCC should auction AWS-3 spectrum in 5x5 MHz blocks to "ensure the auction does not become a playing field for only Verizon and AT&T."

AT&T isn't that perturbed by recent pricing changes at its Tier 1 wireless rivals, according to a report from financial analysts who met with AT&T CFO John Stephens.

The report, by Credit Suisse analysts Joseph Mastrogiovanni, Henrik Herbst and Michael Baresich, notes that from AT&T's perspective, the "recent competitive activity is similar to what they've seen in the past, indicating management feels the market remains rational." In the meeting, the analysts said Stephens "stressed the importance of network quality over price, which is likely why we have continued to see low churn."

T-Mobile US, AT&T and other carriers have in recent months changed their rate plans in multiple ways, offering larger data buckets to some customers, raising prices on others and in general trying to retain customers and go after those who might be willing to switch.

Meanwhile, AT&T is plowing ahead with its LTE network build-out, which now covers around 280 million POPs. AT&T aims to hit 300 million by the summer. The analysts said that Stephens reiterated "the importance of network speed and quality in reinforcing" the company's competitive position.