UScellular (NYSE: USM) announced that it will sell to AT&T (NYSE: T) a portion of its retained spectrum licenses, both deployed and inventoried, comprising 1,250 million MHz-POPs of 3.45 GHz and 331 million MHz-POPs of 700 MHz B/C block licenses for $1.018 billion payable in cash. The transaction is contingent upon the closing of the sale of the UScellular wireless operations and select spectrum assets to T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS), Inside Towers reported, and is subject to the receipt of regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
The deal is part of UScellular’s broader objective, announced in May, to opportunistically monetize the spectrum that was not included in the proposed sale to T-Mobile, and follows transactions to sell a portion of the retained spectrum licenses to Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and two other unnamed mobile network operators, Inside Towers reported. Including the proposed T-Mobile transaction, UScellular will have reached agreements to monetize approximately 70 percent of its total spectrum holdings (excluding mmWave), measured on a MHz-Pops basis, for $2.02 billion.
“After our proposed sales, we will be left with 1.86 billion MHz-POPs of low and mid-band spectrum, as well as 17.2 billion MHz-POPs of mmWave spectrum, with the substantial majority of retained value in the C-band spectrum,” commented Laurent C. Therivel, UScellular President and CEO.
UScellular spent $580 million in FCC Auction 110 for 380 345 GHz licenses in 104 PEAs and $1.3 billion in Auction 107 for 254 C-band licenses in 99 PEAs across its 21-state operating area.
Therivel explained that the retained C-band spectrum holds considerable value which UScellular could either monetize or deploy in the future. He pointed out that C-band offers attractive mid-band speed and capacity features and is supported by a substantial 5G equipment ecosystem. Therivel added that the company’s C-band licenses have lengthy build-out timelines with first and second build out dates of 2029 and 2033, respectively..
The company said that some of the licenses being sold to AT&T are owned by a third party. Selling these licenses to AT&T is contingent upon UScellular’s purchase of the equity in the third party that UScellular does not currently own, pending receipt of regulatory approval. Those licenses cover approximately 15 percent of the total MHz-Pops represented in the announced transaction.
By John Celentano, Inside Towers Business Editor
Reader Interactions