Black Dot's New Pitch to AT&T Cell Site Owners
According to a client of mine, Black Dot Wireless has a new pitch that they are trying on landowners with AT&T cell site leases. Most of these pitches, I don't bother to post. Today's pitch was so patently ludicrous that I felt it necessary to call them out on such a ridiculous statement. (even worse than the balloons will take the place of cell tower pitch) Black Dot is now claiming that due to AT&T's acquisition of a spectrum in the 700MHz auction, that AT&T
will no longer need 9 out of 10 towers because AT&T's towers will now have an effective radius of
50 MILES. These unneeded towers will be terminated within 2 years. Of course, the only way that the landowner could protect his lease was to reduce it WITHIN 5 DAYS.
There is truth to the fact that 700MHz spectrum is more efficient than either the 850MHz spectrum or the 1900MHz spectrum that AT&T currently uses. But to suggest that AT&T will terminate 9 out of 10 towers within 2 years is reckless at best.
Hopefully, Black Dot's management and AT&T's management aren't privy to the fact that Black Dot's agent are making such completely unfounded and reckless statements. If they are, shame on them. And if you are a landowner reading this- you might consider contacting your state attorney general and asking whether Black Dot can legally make such misleading statements.
Please note that Steel in the Air, Inc. is not affiliated with Black Dot Wireless or AT&T. If you have found this post while searching for Black Dot- please go to www. blackdotwireless .com. If you are looking for AT&T- please visit
http://www.att.com/Labels: 700 MHz Auction, AT and T, ATT Mobility, blackdot
Google will Prosper in an Era of Disruptive Change in Media (and Wireless Telecommunications)
My apologies to Bruce Benson from
FTI Consulting for ripping off the title of his fascinating white paper entitled-
"Couch Potato Famine- Prospering Through an Era of Disruptive Change In Media."His article is an excellent analysis of the impact of three forces that will profoundly impact the distribution of media and which I believe will have an equally great impact on the wireless industry. He points to Open Standards, the Proliferation of Broadband, and the Emergence of Many to Many Networks. The article describes how
YouTube and its role in content aggregation is crumbling the "walled garden of the broadcast paradigm". The ability for users to immediately create and distribute media to a wide user base is already starting to have the impact of of
nominalizing the large incumbent producers.
So it is no huge leap of faith to foresee the possibilities of extending the
ability to create and share media from the mobile devices that accompany us everywhere. Nor it is difficult to
prognosticate that instantaneous access to this content will become a necessity, especially for the younger generations.
The wireless carriers in the United States have attempted to corral the use of these services under their "bucket of minutes" and under their umbrella. (Anybody recall how worthless and frustrating AT&T's
MMode was?) Rather than embrace that free access to media would increase the minutes of use on the network- the carriers tried to create clunky
WAP websites that funneled users through a limited set of options.
Google however, sees the light and has different ideas. It has proposed to the FCC that it would spend
$4.6 billion on the upcoming 700 MHz auction provided that the FCC modify its rules. These changes would include:
"Open applications: Consumers should be able to download and utilize any software applications, content, or services they desire;
Open devices: Consumers should be able to utilize a handheld communications device with whatever wireless network they prefer;
Open services: Third parties (resellers) should be able to acquire wireless services from a 700 MHz licensee on a wholesale basis, based on reasonably nondiscriminatory commercial terms; and
Open networks: Third parties (like Internet service providers) should be able to interconnect at any technically feasible point in a 700 MHz licensee's wireless network."Google clearly sees the
possibility of open networks and the role of its search on these networks. Not to mention the ability to use the algorithms that control the display of ads in divesting radio frequency to individual companies with innovative (or non-innovative) ideas on a piecemeal auction type basis. Whatever the results of
Google's efforts, one thing is clear. Whoever dominates this auction will be better equipped for the vast need of additional bandwidth that will be required in the upcoming years.
Labels: 700 MHz Auction, Google
