Sprint CFO: 600MHz Auction Will Not Deliver Enough Spectrum

Sprint's new CFO mainly reiterated what he said in late 2015 during a conference in Las Vegas on Thursday afternoon but did elucidate why the operator isn't particularly interested in the 600MHz TV Incentive auction this year.

"This auction is at best going to give a block of 2x10MHz spectrum," Tarek Robbiati said at the Citi 2016 Internet, Media and Telecommunications Conference. "For a really, really high-speed network you need at least 2x20MHz of contiguous spectrum."

Furthermore, Robbiati suggested, the spectrum won't be available for use until 2021. (See Sprint Says It Will Sit Out Incentive Auction .)

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless also seem lukewarm on the 600MHz auction. All of which has led T-Mobile US Inc. 's CEO, John Legere, to suggest that his carrier will be a winner in the upcoming spring auction. (See T-Mobile CEO: We'll be a 600MHz Auction Winner.)

Instead, Robbiati says, Sprint will work harder on adding capacity to its network with its existing spectrum. This will involve adding small cells, femtocells and distributed antenna systems (DAS), the CFO says.

"What we're really working on is picking out the partners that we work with," Robbiati says. He says that there are plenty of alternative vendors at CES that Sprint could talk to. (See Sprint's Small Cell Suppliers Could Include Some Surprises.)

— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading