AT&T today said it plans to buy NextWave Wireless and its spectrum licenses, which are adjacent to that used by satellite radio services. The spectrum isn't licensed for mobile Internet use today, but AT&T has an agreement with Sirius XM which—pending FCC approval—would assuage concerns about interference and allow the spectrum to be used in AT&T's 4G-LTE network.

AT&T famously lost its bid to take over T-Mobile in the face of opposition from the Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission. With rival Verizon Wireless getting closer to beefing up its spectrum holdings, AT&T is not standing idly by, but adding spectrum has run up against other regulatory challenges. In announcing the acquisition of NextWave Wireless, AT&T noted that NextWave holds licenses in both the Advanced Wireless Service band (which is approved for mobile Internet use) and the Wireless Communication Services band (which is not).

But AT&T and Sirius XM recently settled differences over use of the 2.3GHz WCS band, which is shared by WCS and satellite radio. As a result, AT&T and Sirius submitted a joint proposal to the FCC designed to allow mobile broadband use while limiting interference with satellite. That proposal is under review at the FCC.

AT&T said it would pay $50 million for NextWave and another $550 million to pay off NextWave's outstanding debt. AT&T is hoping to get approval for the acquisition from the Justice Department and FCC by the end of this year, but deploying WCS spectrum to boost AT&T's 4G-LTE capacity will take another three years, the company said.

A long-term solution to our growing demand for wireless services was recently proposed by President Obama's technical advisory committee, which suggested sharing 1,000MHz of federal spectrum with commercial industries. But any such radical change will likely take years. For now, US carriers are trying to grab every bit of spectrum they can get their hands on (with some exceptions).