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C-block Spectrum in Use by 2010

Verizon said this morning the company will launch its next-generation wireless broadband network, dubbed Long Term Evolution (LTE) after sometime in 2010, approximately a year after the large swath of C-block 700 MHz spectrum the company won in a recent FCC auction becomes available.

Television broadcasters, who will be required to switch to all-digital signals in 2009, are currently using the spectrum. Google bluffed its competing bids in order to drive the price of the spectrum above the promised $4.6 billion reserve. The FCC required this minimum price in order to enforce openness standards.

Verizon paid $9.36 billion to license what it calls “the FCC-termed” C-block (Verizon and critics used to call it the Google Block after Google pushed for open standards) and 102 individual licenses in the A and B blocks. The C-block is nationwide, covering every state but Alaska. The company says the spectrum provides a speed and performance advantage to increase the capabilities of next-generation wireless devices, including wireless phones, medical devices, and gaming consoles.

“We now have sufficient spectrum to continue growing our business and data revenues well into – and possibly through – the next decade, and this is the very best spectrum with excellent propagation and in-building characteristics,” said Verizon president and CEO Lowell McAdam, in a statement.

“We also believe that the combination of the national, contiguous, same-frequency C-block footprint and our transition to LTE will make Verizon the preferred partner for developers of a new wave of consumer electronics and applications using this next generation technology.”