T-Mobile/U.S. Cellular Say Spectrum Sale Will Be Good for Competition
T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular tried to build a case for speedy approval of T-Mobile’s proposed buy of Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum covering 29 markets in the Mississippi Valley region for $308 million from U.S. Cellular. The deal was unveiled in late June (CD July 1 p16). T-Mobile will add spectrum covering St. Louis, Nashville, Kansas City, Memphis, Lexington, Louisville, Little Rock-North Little Rock, Birmingham and New Orleans, T-Mobile said.
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The deal shows the rising value of spectrum. The filing said the sale covers most of the spectrum in the regional license purchased by U.S. Cellular/Barat in the 2006 AWS-1 auction, except for “certain counties in the eastern half of Tennessee.” FCC records show that U.S. Cellular bought the entire Mississippi Valley Regional Economic Area Grouping license for $105.8 million in 2006. T-Mobile had also bid in that auction, offering as much as $89.8 million for the license at the time, before its bid was trumped early in the auction by U.S. Cellular.
"The proposed partial assignment will serve the public interest by providing T-Mobile US with immediately usable spectrum to expand its 4G LTE coverage and deepen its 4G LTE roll-out in the Mississippi Valley region,” said the public interest statement filed by T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular Friday. “The spectrum will also support T-Mobile US’s ability to expand the MetroPCS brand to new metropolitan areas in the Mississippi Valley. In addition, the transaction will provide U.S. Cellular with financial resources for strengthening its business in its core service areas."
The carriers asked the FCC to approve the deal on an “expedited basis” since it “meets the public interest and will neither violate the [Communications] Act or Commission rules nor frustrate or undermine policies and enforcement of the Act.” If the deal is approved, T-Mobile will be able to offer LTE coverage in an area serving up to 3.2 million people, the filing said: “LTE represents a major advance for the wireless industry in terms of performance, efficiency, and service flexibility. LTE also provides significant benefits in latency, or the speed in which data transverses [sic] the entire wireless network.”