- MidWave Wireless spent years preparing the 1.4 GHz spectrum for market, and now it’s ready for prime time
- Its high-power, flexible-use spectrum is “ideally suited” for emergency services, critical infrastructure and mission-critical private broadband networks
- MidWave’s licenses cover the entire 1.4 GHz band across the United States and its overseas territories
Some ideas are so far ahead of their time they never get off the ground. Take, for example, the Genus smartphone that TerreStar developed shortly before it filed for bankruptcy in 2010.
The Genus looked like a BlackBerry but was actually a dual-mode satellite and terrestrial cellular phone. Sound familiar? Yes, it was a precursor to today’s satellite direct-to-device (D2D) phones that are all the rage. Like so many satellite firms from days gone by, TerreStar didn’t make it. The Genus, with a $799 price tag, didn’t either.
But TerreStar’s spectrum lives on and after a laborious years-long process involving sign-offs from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the 3GPP, MidWave Wireless wants everyone know that its 1.4 GHz spectrum is available. It might even be useable – at some future point – for those slick D2D services that all the major U.S. carriers are talking about.
At what price? John Dooley, managing director at Jarvinian, which directs the technical aspects of spectrum development for MidWave, didn’t give a number but said a minimum value will be “somewhere between 800 MHz and recent 600 MHz transactions.” Spectrum transactions depend on a bunch of factors, but for reference, T-Mobile in 2023 forked over $3.5 billion for 600 MHz spectrum licenses that covered about one-third of the U.S. population.
MidWave holds 64 commercial wireless licenses in the terrestrial 1.4 GHz band that cover the entire nation. It says the spectrum is ideally suited for high-priority applications like emergency services, critical infrastructure and private broadband – the kinds of things the Big 3 wireless carriers are offering.
“We're looking for partners, folks that want to use the spectrum for high-value purpose, and any structure is on the table,” Dooley told Fierce. “I can't speak to precisely what's being looked at, but it's definitely something where there's a market discovery that's going on right now.”
Why 1.4 GHz is good for 5G
According to Dooley, the 1.4 GHz spectrum is unique in that it’s kind of a blend between 800 MHz and 1.9 GHz in that it can cover very wide areas and open spaces effectively but also permeates urban and “high clutter” spaces very readily.
Mobile carriers are eyeing the lower 3 GHz band, but it’s occupied by the Department of Defense and it isn’t exactly in a hurry to share or vacate the spectrum. And Dooley notes there’s a “huge difference” in propagation characteristics between 1 GHz and 3 GHz.
“The moment you get above Band 41 [the 2.5 GHz band], the physics changes radically,” he said, which is why T-Mobile touts its 2.5 GHz spectrum advantage. “That's why their benchmarks are so superior. It transformed their service fundamentally.”
Satellite coverage potential
MidWave also believes its 1.4 GHz spectrum is ideally suited for D2D services due to its propagation characteristics – legacy satellite services like Globalstar, Iridium and Inmarsat operate nearby at 1.5 GHz and 1.6 GHz – and it’s got an extremely low noise floor, which is essential for the far-away satellite to hear weak signals from devices on the ground.
But MidWave was late to the FCC’s supplemental coverage from space (SCS) proceeding and the FCC declined to add the 1.4 GHz band to the SCS bands “at this time,” leaving the door open for a potential future inclusion, Dooley noted.
Meanwhile, MidWave is positioning the spectrum as ideal for sensitive and high-priority applications, like emergency services, critical infrastructure and mission-critical private broadband networks that require high availability and low latency. The 1.4 GHz band was officially given the 3GPP’s seal of approval last month when it was designated as 5G Band n110, which also makes it a good candidate for carrier aggregation with other licensed or unlicensed 5G bands, according to MidWave.
MidWave was operating under the corporate name TerreStar until about a year ago, when it changed its name to MidWave Wireless to more accurately reflect its status as one of the largest independent mid-band spectrum holders in the U.S. It’s backed by the same group that arranged for NextWave’s 2.5 GHz (Band 41) network launch and helped Globalstar get its spectrum ready for Apple to use it for SOS messaging.
MidWave sees its role as taking spectrum that’s not quite ready for prime time, pulling it through the standards and regulatory processes to make it usable and then offering it up for sale.
“That’s kind of our specialty,” Dooley said. “We look at the spectrum on the spectrum analyzer. We do the math. Ultimately the physical thing here is really important, so we’ll go do that hard work. The carriers want it ready to go. They can’t make those long-term bets.”
Who’s buying it?
While MidWave is pitching the 1.4 GHz spectrum as attractive for both mobile operators and mission-critical users, it’s not clear is how big carriers' appetites will be for this spectrum.
“I’m doubtful there’s huge interest here unless a large, highly profitable, narrowband opportunity came about,” said Terry Chevalier, managing director at consulting firm Sunstone Associates. “The big wireless players usually don’t want to be the pioneers on a new band by themselves – they prefer bands that others will be using to create scale in the band and keep costs low.”
More bands seem to be popping up for IoT and private networks lately, he told Fierce, noting the T-Mobile/Grain 800 MHz deal, Anterix’s work with utilities in the 900 MHz band and private network activity in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band.
“All of these bands seem to be targeting the same market. This is going to create more options and potential competition for all of these firms,” he concluded. “It’s good news for these users and their use cases in many ways, but it does mean companies are going to have to place their bets on which approach they want to use.”