AT&T loads up on 700 MHz with Aloha purchase

AT&T said today it has agreed to acquire Aloha Partners and its valuable portfolio for 700 MHz licenses for $2.5 billion in cash. Aloha originally planned to launch a mobile TV network using the TV airwaves, but AT&T said that it had not decided yet what to do with the licenses.

The deal will give AT&T 12 MHz of high-propagation, non-line-of-site frequencies covering 196 million people in 72 of top metropolitan areas in the U.S. The spectrum could be used to create additional cellular voice and 3G networks, to build a low-frequency WiMAX or broadband wireless network or for Aloha’s original purposes: to build a nationwide multicast TV network.

Aloha planned on launching a nationwide network called Hiwire using its spectrum and Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld (DVB-H). Though the company launched a trial network in Las Vegas, the commercial network never materialized. Hiwire like its fellow DVB-H operator Modeo failed to find a launch customer, while both companies’ competitor Qualcomm launched its own broadcast network based on its own Forward Link Only (FLO) technology.

AT&T has signed on to launch FLO services by the end of the year, and it could feasibly allow Qualcomm to use its new spectrum to broadcast video channels exclusively for AT&T subscribers.