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T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless Announce Spectrum Deal (6/25/12)
T-Mobile USA announced an agreement with Verizon Wireless for the purchase and exchange of certain Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum licenses in 218 markets across the United States. T-Mobile officials said the transaction will improve T-Mobile’s spectrum position in 15 of the top 25 U.S. markets by providing an opportunity for T-Mobile both to acquire additional AWS spectrum and to realign its existing spectrum holdings.

Following regulatory approval, this spectrum can be deployed to enhance T-Mobile’s rollout of Long Term Evolution (LTE) service next year. Some of the spectrum T-Mobile is acquiring in this transaction includes licenses that Verizon is purchasing from SpectrumCo, Cox and Leap, and the agreement is contingent on the closing of those transactions and is subject to regulatory approval by the FCC and the Department of Justice.

“This agreement will provide T-Mobile with critical AWS spectrum, enhancing both network capacity and performance and allowing us to meet the growing consumer demand for 4G mobile broadband,” T-Mobile CEO and President Philipp Humm said.

T-Mobile will gain spectrum covering 60 million people — notably in Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Detroit; Minneapolis; Seattle; Cleveland; Columbus, Ohio; Milwaukee; Charlotte, N.C.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Greensboro, N.C.; Memphis, Tenn.; and Rochester, N.Y. — in exchange for spectrum covering 22 million people and certain cash consideration.

The agreement also includes exchanges in a number of markets in which the companies will swap licenses to create more contiguous blocks of spectrum and re-align spectrum in adjacent markets. This agreement is in addition to T-Mobile’s previously announced $4 billion 4G network evolution plan, which includes modernization of 37,000 cell sites, launching HSPA+ services in the 1.9 GHz band and deployment of LTE in 2013.

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