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AT&T, Verizon Plan New WiFi in Old TV Spectrum

Telecoms envision WiFi that can penetrate deep into buildings

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff

Posted Apr 6, 2008 1:00 AM CDT

(Newser) – Verizon and AT&T are talking big about recent bandwidth acquisitions at an FCC auction, the Washington Post reports. The companies promised fast, high-tech new networks in the next few years based on long-range frequencies, newly available from television broadcasters, that can penetrate deep into buildings. A Verizon spokesman said the company hoped to connect “anything and everything together,” Reuters reports.

Verizon purchased an “open” segment of frequencies that must be accessible by any and all devices. Discussing the deal, a spokesman eschewed “regulatory-ese. We want to get people to close their eyes and imagine the possibilities.” AT&T’s purchase was more open-ended, though its wireless CEO hinted at a partnership with Google on an open-source wireless system; one critic noted that a walled garden “is still a walled garden.”

A Verizon sign in Philadelphia.
A Verizon sign in Philadelphia.   (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, file)
A Verizon sign is seen with telephone lines in the background  in Montpelier, Vt., in this Jan. 16, 2007, file photo. Vermont regulators on Friday, Dec., 21, 2007, issued a decision turning down FairPoint Communications' planned purchase of Verizon landlines.
A Verizon sign is seen with telephone lines in the background in Montpelier, Vt., in this Jan. 16, 2007, file photo. Vermont regulators on Friday, Dec., 21, 2007, issued a decision turning down FairPoint...   (AP Photo/Toby Talbot, File)
An AT&T sign is installed replacing what had been a Cingular sign on a wireless telephone store in Little Rock, Ark., Friday, June 22, 2007. AT&T Inc., which will be the exclusive carrier of Apple Inc.'s much-hyped new iPhone, has hired 2,000 extra workers to staff its company-owned...
An AT&T sign is installed replacing what had been a Cingular sign on a wireless telephone store in Little Rock, Ark., Friday, June 22, 2007. AT&T Inc., which will be the exclusive carrier of Apple Inc.'s...   (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)
A cell phone tower east of Chester, Mont.
A cell phone tower east of Chester, Mont.   (AP Photo/Great Falls Tribune, Stuart White, file)
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