T-Mobile's Voluntary Payments Speed Wireless Broadband Deployment

Broadcasting & Cable's John Eggerton reports that T-Mobile has made a voluntary commitment to pay for affected low-power stations to move to temporary channels in order to clear broadcast spectrum as quickly and equitably as possible following the incentive auction. While it is true that providing compensation to the low-power stations will help expedite clearing the spectrum that T-Mobile secured in the 600 MHz auction, it is also true that T-Mobile is under no obligation to make the payments to which it has volunteered. Instead, it could look to Congress or elsewhere for the additional relocation funds.

T-Mobile's voluntary commitment should help put it in a position to start expanding its advanced wireless network sooner than otherwise might be possible. That's not just good for T-Mobile, it's good for all Americans as the demand for high-speed wireless services increases exponentially.

And note that T-Mobile's new commitment is on top of the one made to cover certain costs incurred by public TV stations in relocating as a result of the 600 MHz auction. I wrote about that commitment in this post, "T-Mobile-PBS Agreement Is a Win-Win."