New Phones and TV Stations On The Move: The 600MHz Repack Saga Continues

November 19, 2018

By Joel Guilbert, Dale Pro Audio

A short update for NYC based user of the radio frequency spectrum in the 600MHz range: WWOR (transmitted at 617 Mhz, formerly occupied 614-620Mhz) and WLNY (transmitted at 671 Mhz, formerly occupied 668-674Mhz) have moved out of the spectrum they previously occupied. This clears the way for that the new owner of that spectrum to start to utilize it as now it is free from the powerful TV transmitters.

The new owner of this particular chunk of spectrum is T-Mobile, who has announced plans to have its towers in the NYC area active in "early 2019”. They are currently in the testing phase. As we've mentioned before, they have been very aggressive at trying to get their 5G LTE service implemented nationwide.

The other spectrum owners in the NYC area are Dish Network and Comcast, though they haven’t yet announced their intentions. There were 7 blocks of spectrum auctioned off in each territory. In the NYC area, the average cost per block was in the 477 MILLION dollar range - the NYC 600Mhz spectrum was sold for over 3.4 BILLION dollars! This was the most expensive in the country. Over in Biloxi, MS, you would have spent in the range of 7.5 M.

T-Mobile now offers 20 phones and 2 tablets that operate in the 600Mhz range, with a handful more coming to the market. For example - Apples’ new iPhones Xs, Xs Max, and Xr and iPad Pro 2018 11 and 12.9” models support 600Mhz frequencies. There are now plenty of devices to utilize the spectrum once the towers are up and running.

Still using wireless audio gear in the 600 MHz spectrum? Chances are your time has run out. Not to worry, though - we're ready to help. Here at Dale, we've been on top of these developments for as long as they've been happening, and our newly-launched RF Solutions Group can tackle projects and implementations of just about any size. Contact us today and find out how!

Joel Guilbert is Dale Pro Audio's Technology Development Manager, and assists on technical support inquiries, system design and integration, and much more for our company. He can be reached at joel@daleproaudio.com.

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