Even though Sprint (S) could soon have a commanding advantage over its rivals in terms of spectrum holdings, CEO Dan Hesse still isn’t satisfied. Bloomberg reports that Hesse and Sprint are still plotting ways grab more spectrum even if the company succeeds in fully purchasing Clearwire and boosting its total mobile data spectrum portfolio to an industry-leading 184MHz.
“Clearwire would give us a strong spectrum position for a period of time,” Hesse tells Bloomberg. “But we also have a very long-term view, and we would want to acquire more spectrum.”
Hesse says that Sprint is looking under every nook and corner to find new spectrum, whether it comes from deals with other spectrum-holding companies or from aggressively bidding in government auctions. Bloomberg notes that Sprint’s acquisition by Japanese wireless provider Softbank (SFTBY) has helped the company take the gloves off in terms of acquisitions over the past six months, as the company hadn’t made any significant spectrum buys in the year leading up to the merger.
Freeing up more airwaves for wireless carriers is a big goal for both the wireless industry and the Federal Communications Commission, especially since a recent study showed that American LTE speeds lag behind the speeds in several other developed countries due to a shortage of available contiguous spectrum.
