Pinocchio gets its 3G spectrum, probably: T-Mobile looks likely to win 119 licenses for advanced wireless service (AWS) spectrum, paying about $4.2b (at the moment) for a portfolio that includes New York City and Chicago. T-Mobile has two problems in the US: It's the No. 4 carrier with a significant gap below No. 3, and it lacks 3G spectrum that would allow it to compete for next-generation streaming audio and video as well as data services. T-Mobile uses GSM, so they'd deploy HSDPA for 3G data, and that might allow them to do a deal with Cingular to more rapidly share and expand coverage. Sprint and Verizon have substantially more exclusive EVDO coverage in the US; they don't offer EVDO roaming.
A cable group aligned with Sprint has high bids on 137 licenses; there's some speculation that this could tie in with Sprint Nextel's mobile WiMax plans, in that Sprint says their 2.5 GHz licenses for mobile WiMax only pass 100m people in the US, or 1/3rd the country's population.
Update: A commenter says that Sprint's 2.5 GHz licenses cover 85% of the US population, and that 100m people is just their initial launch plan. Does anyone have a reference for that?
Glenn,
Actually, the 100M people was their announced planned buildout - their licenses cover about 85% of the US population. (They said "85% in top 100 metro areas", but it works out to close to 85% across the board, between owned licenses and leases.)
The configuration of WiMAX that Sprint is planning doesn't fit neatly with the AWS spectrum - they're planning on using 10 MHz channels with TDD; AWS requires FDD.