\tUS operator C Spire argued T-Mobile US won\u2019t be able to fulfil a promise to vastly expand rural coverage in the wake of a proposed merger with Sprint, noting the deal won\u2019t change economic factors which make it costly to run backhaul to remote sites.<\/p>\n
In a filing with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), T-Mobile stated it has \u201csubstantial high-speed backhaul capabilities for its rural facilities\u201d and \u201cconcrete plans\u201d to upgrade those facilities to meet the needs of its post-merger network.<\/p>\n
It detailed plans to upgrade its existing microwave backhaul links to support multi-gigabit speeds starting this year, and noted several scalable solutions have been installed to ensure the network is \u201cfuture-proofed\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, in a statement, C Spire contended those declarations \u201cdo not demonstrate that new T-Mobile will actually obtain the backhaul necessary to construct new sites in rural areas\u201d, and noted the operator did not address how it would overcome financial barriers to rural deployments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is nothing about the proposed transaction that changes the challenging economics of doing a greenfield build in rural areas where the availability and cost of backhaul present severe limitations,\u201d it wrote.<\/p>\n
The question of whether or not the merger will help expand rural coverage in the country has become a sticking point [1] for T-Mobile and Sprint as regulatory reviews [2] of the transaction plod along.<\/p>\n
Though T-Mobile has promised to deploy a more robust network in remote areas following the merger and build 600 new retail locations to better serve small towns, sceptics have questioned the specifics of its execution plan.<\/p>\n[1] https:\/\/www.mobileworldlive.com\/featured-content\/top-three\/congress-grills-sprint-t-mobile-on-rural-coverage\/
\n[2] https:\/\/www.mobileworldlive.com\/featured-content\/top-three\/t-mobile-ramps-merger-rhetoric-as-regulators-waver\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US operator C Spire argued T-Mobile US won’t be able to fulfil a promise to …<\/p>\n
The post C Spire takes aim at T-Mobile coverage claim<\/a> appeared first on Mobile World Live<\/a>.<\/p>\n