Wednesday, February 18, 2015

John Burnett — T-Mobile Should Not Get Leg Up Over

John Burnet a moderate-conservative Republican blogger in New York City, argues that "T-Mobile shouldn't get a leg up from the government against its competitors".

The other day, John J. Legere, the brash chief executive of T-Mobile, sent out a tweet that may have gone over the heads of all but the most discerning telecommunications expert. “Looking forward to sharing my opinion once the quiet period is over,” he wrote to his more than 1 million Twitter followers.

The quiet period that Legere is obliquely referring to is, in fact, a gag order that Federal Communications Commission has imposed on communication company executives regarding recent government efforts to sell valuable airwaves of wireless broadband known as spectrum.

But no one should be on the edge of their seats waiting for Legere, who is something of a showman, to make good on his cryptic promise to share his thoughts. Time and again, we have heard the same from T-Mobile, with its pleas to the government for help in competing in the wireless market. Specifically, Legere’s T-Mobile is seeking special treatment in an upcoming auction of spectrum, a vital component of the wireless industry, by asking the FCC to set aside more of it for smaller carriers (i.e. not Verizon or AT&T).

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