T-Mobile-UScellular Deal Clears Trump Administration Foreign Review
A Seeking Alpha analyst estimated the deal's closing could be delayed due to turnover at the FCC.
WASHINGTON, June 25, 2025 – T-Mobile’s $4.3 billion purchase of UScellular’s wireless assets has cleared a review by federal law enforcement agencies. The companies are targeting a “mid-2025” close date.
Back in November the Federal Communications Commission, which will need to approve the deal, referred the transaction to a White House committee that advises the agency on foreign ownership issues. T-Mobile is owned by German firm Deutsche Telekom.
The committee is composed of officials from the Departments of Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security, plus other agencies.
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“The Committee has reviewed the applications and has no recommendation at this time to the Commission approving the applications and no objection to the Commission granting it,” the National Telecommunications and Information Administration wrote to the FCC in a letter posted Monday.
T-Mobile is set to acquire UScellular’s 4 million wireless customers and about a third of its spectrum. UScellular is also selling chunks of its spectrum licenses to AT&T and Verizon, for about $1 billion each, which the FCC will also need to approve.
T-Mobile said in a letter to the committee it was aware the assets it acquires from UScellular would be subject to its existing national security agreement with the separate Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
An analyst wrote for Seeking Alpha Monday that commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington leaving the FCC could have pushed the T-Mobile deal’s approval further back. Newly confirmed FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty was sworn in yesterday, restoring the agency to the three members it needs for a quorum and giving Republicans a 2-1 majority.
“The acquisition will likely shift beyond June-July and could close sometime in August-September,” the analyst wrote.
Rural carriers and consumer groups have opposed all three USCellular deals, urging the FCC to review them collectively for their cumulative impact on competition. UScellular has maintained it doesn’t see any major regulatory roadblocks to the sales.
The company is going to retain its more than 4,400 towers, and is still looking to sell off its remaining spectrum holdings.
