Mobile 4G spectrum investors actually spent $12.4m on walkie-talkie frequencies – US SEC

This spectum

So, this is (most likely) the spectrum that was used for Nextel-like systems -- Nextel ran a nationwide low-speed data, walkie-talkie, and cell phone service using Motorola iDen technology (as did/does SouthernLinc in part of the South)... these are the 2000 pound gorillas but anyone else who wished to also have licenses here for walkie talkie service (probably also using private iDEN networks). Sprint bought Nextel about 15 years ago. These licenses were kind of one-off, sometimes just 1 or 2 (30khz) channels at a time, so (licensing issues asside) typically Sprint would not have had enough contiguous spectrum to run even a single 1.25mhz pair for a CDMA channel. Sprint did get the other iDEN users rebanded so they are more-or-less contiguous, and Sprint's spectrum is contiguous, and got the FCC to let them use it for something else... so they are in fact using this 800mhz spectrum now (for about the last 5 years) for CDMA 1x (for better range than the 1900mhz CDMA they have) and for LTE service (800mhz LTE for range, 2.5ghz LTE for capacity).

That said, this was a one-off deal, Sprint cannot buy the remaining narrowband spectrum to add to their CDMA or LTE service. The investment firm should have known this, and if the investors had done minimal due diligence they could have seen "800mhz? WTF?" and thought twice about investing as well.

Unavailable?

A spokesperson for Janus Spectrum was unavailable at time of publication.

s/unavailable/boarding a flight for the Bahamas/

There are also a good number of public safety/emergency management frequencies in the 800Mhz band. Also a lot of times, at least in the Southeastern US, voice for the railroads is in it as well. The Motorola semi-APCO Project 25 compliant X2 TDMA/FDMA system for public safety in my area uses a set of frequencies around 770 and 855 to 859 Mhz. It works well for them, but then again they also have two main transmitters as the size of the county as well as its shape requires it.

Armed groups with an inherent need to have extremely mobile infrastructure like the Afghan Taliban, the Naxalites in India, and the former LTTE in Sri Lanka like to use that same frequency band for their radio base stations and handsets too. The Taliban at least are all well aware they can be and are routinely intercepted though, so they usually use local kids as runners for anything that isn't immediately tactical as well as anything really important.

I dunno, maybe these guys are crooks, then again maybe they're just incompetent or ignorant. Hanlon's Razor after all. And the investors who got fucked probably should have done some research into just exactly what these people were proposing to buy and, I dunno, maybe checked out any FCC documentation, as well as laws, CFR entries and such that might be relevant to said proposal.

I don't really feel too sorry for the burned investors though. Then again, I'm smart enough to know that giving someone aside from the Taxman thousands of dollars of my money when I don't know what they're doing with it is a pretty stupid idea.

Knowing the technology wouldn't help you avoid this scan. Just the opposite -- you would know that this was adjacent to valuable in-use bands, that other countries use this band for cellular and data services, and that most existing domestic equipment would merely need a firmware update to use it.

I'm guessing that the pitchmen knew exactly what they were selling. They likely had plenty of documentation that showed how much adjacent radio spectrum had been sold for, and how profitable it had been for those cellular carriers that had purchased it. If questioned, they were probably prepared to give an oral pitch that they had inside information that this band would soon opened to similar use. They would completely avoid describing the regulatory history and existing users.

Re: a dated tech best used for coordinating pizza delivery

Sorry, not even a dive of a pizza delivery shop would use that tech for coordinating delivery. When that pizza has to be there in 30 minutes or less, the call MUST get through. That means a cell phone.

Besides, it's cheaper to log the calls out and pay the delivery guy 15 cents a call to use his personal phone.