US satellite TV provider DISH Network, which hopes to launch a Long Term Evolution (LTE)-Advanced network using its allocation of 40MHz S-Band spectrum by 2016, has accused Sprint Nextel of ‘glossing over’ critical issues related to its spectrum and deployment plans. Fierce Wireless reports that, in a document lodged with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), DISH has criticised a previous Sprint filing, arguing that ‘Sprint’s silence on the key timing and interference issues related to any changes to the AWS-4 band plan underscores that there is no public policy benefit to Sprint’s self-serving proposals’.
Earlier this year the FCC voted to explore how the S-band of mobile satellite spectrum (MSS) spectrum, which it has renamed ‘AWS-4’, should be designed so that the satellite spectrum can be repurposed for terrestrial use. DISH currently owns 40MHz of S-band spectrum – specifically the 2000MHz-2020MHz and 2180MHz-2200MHz blocks. However, its plans are currently in limbo as it awaits word from the watchdog regarding whether it will shift its holdings up by 5MHz. DISH warned that a mooted ‘5MHz upward shift at 2000MHz-2020MHz would needlessly inject serious regulatory and technical obstacles’ into the company’s plans to reinvent itself as an LTE carrier.