Time Warner's cable unit on Wednesday said it was considering bidding, along with three other cable operators, for AWS (3G) licenses at 1.7/2.1 GHz.

The four companies -- Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Cox and Advance/Newhouse Communications -- are already linked in a joint mobile partnership with Sprint Nextel.

"The filing of this application does not obligate Time Warner Cable or other companies to bid in the auction, but it provides us the flexibility to take part should we decide it makes business sense to do so," Time Warner Cable said in a statement.

The sale, which could last for weeks, could bring in $8 billion to $15 billion, analysts have forecast. Wireless companies like T-Mobile are expected to be aggressive bidders.

Comcast and Time Warner's cable unit, the two biggest U.S. cable operators, teamed with Cox and Advance last November with Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. wireless provider. The companies committed $200 million to the project.

The joint venture will test-market a quadruple play with video, voice, data and cellular in seven markets in the United States. The pilot service will be available in Portland, Oregon through Comcast, in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Austin, Texas through Time Warner. The other markets were not disclosed.

According to the NY Times, cable subscribers will be able to access their regular email and view cable TV programs on their cell phones. In addition, they will be able to listen to music, program their DVRs, and view sporting events on their cell phones.

The Advanced Wireless Services Auction (AWS), is scheduled to be held June 25th (pdf). Initial applications to participate in the sale are due today (May 10). It is targeting "3G" cellular using the paired 1710-1755 and 2110-2155 MHz frequency bands.

The 1710-1755 Mhz and 2110-2155 Mhz band was identified in NTIA’s July, 2002 Viability Assessment. They said that spectrum, currently used by a dozen government agencies, could be moved without disrupting communications systems critical to national security. It would make room for some 90 MHz of commercial spectrum. Last year, the FCC notified the NTIA that it would auction the first half of that spectrum--45 MHz in the lower half of the 1.7 GHz band--in 2006.

Sprint's involvement in AWS is somewhat surprising. Sprint and Verizon use 1.25 Mhz wide EVDO channels. They don't much need a new UMTS band using a different, less efficient and incompatible 3G technology. Their current EV-DO technology works fine on their current bands. They're pretty well fixed.

Still, opening up the new 1710/2100 frequencies for 3G phones does make sense. Cellular usage is growing and 3G phones in other countries already use at least some of those frequencies. Global roaming could be harmonized.

Read more at: http://dailywireless.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5423&src=rss10.