The $1.018 billion agreement by UScellular to sell spectrum licenses to AT&T — announced today — continues the mobile carrier’s plan to divest itself of licenses not included in its proposed sale to T-Mobile.
The deals, if they all are finalized, will constitute 55% of the spectrum holdings (measured on a MHz-POPs basis) from the spectrum licenses not included in the proposed T-Mobile transaction, excluding mmWave licenses. The agreements combine to total $2.02 billion and constitute about 70% of UScelluar’s spectrum holdings, excluding mmWave.
MHz-POP is defined by Law Insider as “the number of the megahertz of [s]pectrum multiplied by the population of the covered area.”
The AT&T deal does not leave UScellular without spectrum. President and CEO Laurent C. Therivel said in the announcement that UScellular retains 1.86 billion MHz-POPs in the low- and mid-band spectrums, 17.2 billion MHz-POPs of mmWave spectrum, and “the substantial majority of retained value” in C-band spectrum.
“This agreement adds a fourth mobile network operator, in addition to T-Mobile, to the list of those whose subscribers will benefit from the sale of our spectrum licenses. As with the other mobile network operators, we are confident that AT&T can put it to productive use in communities throughout the U.S.,” UScellular’s Therivel said in the announcement.
“Furthermore, the terms of the agreement will ensure that there will be continued, uninterrupted service for UScellular customers in the interim.”
The announcement says that “substantially all” of the transaction is contingent upon the closing of the operational and select spectrum assets to T-Mobile as well as regulatory approvals and “customary closing conditions.”
Some of the licenses being sold to AT&T are owned by a third party not named in the press release. Their sale to AT&T is contingent on the purchase of that company by UScellular. That deal is awaiting regulatory approval. Those licenses represent about 15% of the MHz-POPs in the AT&T-UScellular transaction
The $4.4 billion purchase of UScellular’s wireless operation and some of its spectrum by T-Mobile was announced in late May.
UScellular also agreed to sell spectrum to Verizon and two other carriers in October. Verizon will pay $1 billion for the spectrum licenses it is buying. The names and details concerning the other two transactions were not included in the announcement.
