Spectrum Per Customer Matters

One always has to take marketing claims with a grain of salt. So it is with U.S. mobile operator spectrum holdings.

AT&T recently has claimed a dramatic lead in low-band spectrum. This chart shows why AT&T makes the claim. 

AT&T has about 176 MHz worth of low-band and mid-band spectrum, compared to Verizon’s 117 Mhz, Sprint’s 212 Mhz, T-Mobile’s 11o MHz and Dish Network’s 92 MHz. 

Of course, Verizon and AT&T have the most subscribers, so bandwidth per subscriber is less than for Sprint, T-Mobile US or Dish Network. 

source: Wells Fargo Securities

The “spectrum per subscriber” picture is different, though, because one also has to factor in the network load. Operators with more customers "need" more spectrum. And since Verizon and AT&T have "most of the customers," that should affect spectrum available "per customer."

source: Mobile Experts

Spectrum holdings matter, of course. But subscriber loading also matters. Looked at on a bandwidth per subscriber basis, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile US are not far apart. Only Sprint has an unusually high amount of spectrum. Dish Network has not launched yet, and will be starting with modest network loading, so it should have relatively high spectrum per customer.

Verizon has 35 percent share of subscriptions. AT&T has 34 percent market share. So those two service providers have a combined 69 percent share of market. T-Mobile US has 17.5 percent share, while Sprint has about 12 percent share, according to Statista.