AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson on Tuesday said his company is running out of a precious resource: spectrum.
Speaking Tuesday night in Washington, D.C., during a dinner hosted by The Media Institute, Stephenson said he appreciated efforts to free up more airways but noted that it would take several years to bring spectrum to market in spite of a proposal in which Congress would give the Federal Communications Commission authority to hold so-called incentive auctions, Broadcasting & Cable reported.
“The problem is at AT&T that we are now in many markets approaching exhaust in our spectrum position," Stephenson said. “We are basically running out of capacity. We’re out of spectrum."
Stephenson’s remarks should sound vaguely familiar: AT&T has cited its need for spectrum as one of the most compelling reasons for its $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA. The merger is in jeopardy thanks to an antitrust lawsuit that the Department of Justice has filed in order to block the transaction. If AT&T is unable to cut a deal with the DOJ or loses its case in federal court, Stephenson will have to find another way to obtain the spectrum that AT&T claims it so desperately needs.
