UScellular Optimistic on Closing Spectrum Deals

WASHINGTON, May 9 2025 – UScellular doesn’t see old spectrum auction issues interfering with its plans to sell off its mobile operations and spectrum assets.

The company is in the process of having its mobile customers and some spectrum acquired by T-Mobile for $4.3 billion – the deal was originally $4.4 billion, but UScellular executives said on May 2 that the carrier had failed to meet certain performance benchmarks and thus $100 million would be shaved off the price.

UScellular is also selling about $1 billion worth of spectrum each to AT&T and Verizon. 

About $400 million of the T-Mobile purchase price and $232 million of the AT&T purchase price correspond to spectrum licenses held by smaller companies in which UScellular has an interest. Those license transfers have to be approved separately by the Federal Communications Commission.

Two attorneys, Mark O’Connor and Sara Leibman, have been urging the FCC not to allow UScellular to sell that spectrum, pointing to lawsuits they’ve filed against the company under the False Claims Act. The smaller companies, known as designated entities in FCC spectrum auctions, received bidding discounts that a larger carrier like UScellular would not have been eligible for. The attorneys allege UScellular improperly acquired the airwaves at a lower price through the companies.

Doug Chambers, UScellular’s CFO, noted that the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the company earlier this year in one of those cases, and denied a petition to rehear the case in April.

“That was good news, and hopefully, that will bode well for getting FCC approval,” he said. “The timing is uncertain, but we’re optimistic that we will be able to close the designated entities at some point in time.” 

Consumer advocates and rural wireless carriers have been opposing both the T-Mobile and AT&T deals, arguing to the FCC that they would harm competition. Executives from UScellular and TDS, the carrier’s parent company, said they still expect the T-Mobile deal to close in mid-2025.

UScellular still has an estimated $1.8 billion worth of spectrum to sell, according to New Street Research estimates, with much of that value coming from its C-band holdings. The company is eager to sell those off, too, UScellular CEO L.T. Therivel said.

“When I talk about opportunistic monetization – we mean selling it. If we don’t see a robust market to sell it, we certainly would be open to the concept of leasing it or finding other creative ways to generate some returns on it,” he said. “We vastly prefer to sell it, and we think that’s the path that will go down.”

The regional carrier will hang on to its more than 4,400 towers after the various transactions close. Revenues from tenants on those towers rose 6 percent year-over-year in the first quarter.