T-Mobile, Grain Fire Back at Opponents of Spectrum Deal
Rural wireless carriers oppose extending buildout deadlines.
WASHINGTON, July 3, 2025 – T-Mobile and investment firm Grain Management shot back against the rural wireless carrier trade group that asked regulators to block their spectrum deal.
“It is inexplicable why an organization nominally focused on rural development would champion regulatory inflexibility and administratively burdensome procedures over the flexible framework proposed by [us] ,” the companies wrote in a joint Monday filing with the Federal Communications Commission.
T-Mobile reached a deal with Grain in March to sell the investment firm its 800 MegaHertz spectrum for an undisclosed sum of cash and Grain’s 600 MHz holdings.
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Among other waiver requests, they asked the FCC to extend buildout timelines associated with the licenses until 12 years after the deal closes, rather than 2028, which they said would help Grain market the spectrum to utility companies and give those utilities time to deploy. Grain says it is also planning to sell or lease the spectrum to rural carriers and to other entities for private networks.
The Rural Wireless Association opposed the waiver requests, saying the extra time would allow Grain to “warehouse” the spectrum, either letting the licenses lie fallow or selling them to another large entity for a profit. The group also said the agency should require T-Mobile to allow rural carriers to lease or purchase the 600 MHz licenses in certain areas to prevent excessive consolidation.
“Such claims are unfounded and ignore the economic imperatives of this transaction,” Grain and T-Mobile countered. “The longer Grain delays transacting in the spectrum, the worse its return on the billions of dollars being invested. Time is of the essence for Grain and its investors.”
The companies said the 12-year buildout timeline was to “accommodate the construction of broader, more complex and higher capacity systems. That less complex networks or in-building systems could be constructed more quickly is beside the point.”
Utility companies and their trade groups generally supported the deal and waivers in comments to the FCC. They said they would need the extra time to deploy private networks. Those networks, are used to help monitor and maintain infrastructure, among other things.
T-Mobile was supposed to sell the 800 MHz spectrum to Dish as part of its merger with Sprint, but Dish couldn’t come up with the required $3.59 billion. T-Mobile then moved to auction its 800 MHz licenses last year, also a requirement of the deal, but again nobody bid up to the target price and the company was able to keep the airwaves.
New Street Research analysts estimated earlier this year that Grain’s 600 MHz holdings were worth about $700 million, suggesting the company would put up substantial cash as part of the transaction.
Grain, headed by communications industry veteran David Grain, also owns multiple regional fiber providers, a subsea cable operator, and a portfolio of towers, among other things.
Reply comments in the docket are due July 8.
