WASHINGTON, March 31, 2011 – The Brookings Institution assembled leading telecommunications experts and business representatives on Wednesday to discuss the future of spectrum policy and the impending merger between AT&T and T-Mobile.

WASHINGTON March 29, 2011 – With the acquisition of T-Mobile, AT&T may be not only solving a long standing question about where it would find the spectrum to deploy its planned 4G network, but also make a leap in its public image.

Currently, AT&T uses a band of spectrum not supported by any other carrier in the world, meaning handsets must be specially made for the carrier. Both T-Mobile and AT&T use the same base technology, but the two carriers run their 3G networks on different bands of spectrum. The acquisition of T-Mobile would greatly increase the amount of spectrum and infrastructure that AT&T would possess, bringing service to a greater number of Americans.