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So what’s going to come of the massive blocks of 700 MHz spectrum bought up by AT&T and Verizon? I, among many other in the industry, tried to find that out during CTIA last week. But the FCC would have none of it. Their anti-collusion rules, which prevent participants from talking about the auction, expired just after the show ended. So the big boys could make announcements on their own terms. The good news: Both AT&T and Verizon plan to use the spectrum to launch their high-speed 4G networks. The bad news: It’s going to be a while before we see anything.

AT&T says that it has a quality spectrum holding, with their swath of B-Block spectrum combined with what they bought from Aloha. And they’re totally happy that they didn’t get in on the C-Block. From Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T’s wireless unit:

“With fewer costly and complex regulations, we have the certainty and flexibility needed to move faster in rolling out new mobile technology and more customer choices in devices and applications,” de la Vega said.

Verizon Wireless has similar plans for their spectrum. They, too, plan to use it for LTE, or Long Term Evolution, the fourth generation network type which most if not all carriers are expected to use. It is GSM-based, meaning Verizon is separating from its CDMA roots. However, the convergence of mobile technologies will likely spur innovation, since handset makers should no longer have to make two of the same device, one for GSM and the other for CDMA.

Verizon Wireless President and CEO Lowell McAdam said: “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. 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.”

Let us not forget Google, who confirmed our hunch by stating that they were only in it to “trigger the openness conditions”. This saddens me a bit. Their openness provision effectively kept AT&T out of the C-Block, allowing Verizon to snatch it up with little, if any serious competition. In turn, AT&T bought up smaller blocks that could have benefitted regional cell carriers.

Estimates on when LTE will roll out vary, but late 2010 seems the most optimistic forecast. More realistically, we’re looking at a project for 2011 and 2012.

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