After Merger, T-Mobile Gets to Keep 800 MegaHertz Spectrum
The company's auction ended without a qualifying bid, executives said.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 23, 2024 – T-Mobile’s auction of its 800 MegaHertz (MHz) holdings ended without a qualifying bidder, executives said at the company’s earnings call Wednesday.
“There wasn’t a qualifying bid, as defined in the consent decree. So we’re no longer required to sell it” said T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert. “You’ll have to stay tuned as to our resolution on how we plan to use it.”
He said the company had “a lot of optionality” and neither the cash from selling it nor the coverage boost from deploying it are in the company’s plans. T-Mobile was required to sell the spectrum to Dish as part of its Sprint merger, but Dish couldn’t come up with the necessary cash – T-Mobile asked $3.59 billion at the outset – and it proceeded to the now-closed auction.
Despite T-Mobile leaving its 800 MHz options open, selling the spectrum was part of its pitch to the Federal Communications Commission on the company’s plan to buy UScellular.
“After accounting for the planned sale of T-Mobile’s 800 MHz and certain of its 3.45 GHz spectrum, the Transaction will not result in T-Mobile exceeding the Commission’s spectrum screen or the low-band trigger for enhanced competitive review,” the companies wrote in a September filing.
Mike Katz, T-Mobile’s president of marketing, said that deal is still expected to close in mid-2025. The company’s fiber acquisitions, two separate joint ventures aimed at taking over regional providers Metronet and Lumos, are also expected to close in 2025, he said, with the Lumos deal coming earlier in the year.
The company’s general counsel, Mark Nelson, said Lumos and Metronet had both cleared Justice Department review and are still pending at the FCC.
Subscriber numbers
The company added 415,000 fixed wireless broadband customers in the third quarter, down from a high of 557,000 year-over-year, bringing the total to more than 6 million. That puts the carrier halfway to its goal of 12 million such subscribers by 2028.
T-Mobile also logged a net addition of 865,000 postpaid phone subscribers in the quarter, compared to Verizon’s 239,000 and AT&T’s 403,000.
