UScellular Sells More Spectrum to AT&T for $1 Billion

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7, 2024 – UScellular is selling more of its spectrum to AT&T for $1 billion, the company announced Thursday.

“We are pleased with the significant value that will be realized in the various transactions recently announced,” UScellular CEO Laurent Therivel said in a statement.

The company has been selling off its assets in recent months, inking a $4 billion deal for spectrum and all 4 million of its wireless customers with T-Mobile and a separate $1 billion deal for more spectrum with Verizon and two unnamed operators. Both deals are still pending regulatory approval.

AT&T is set to grab all UScellular’s 3.45 GigaHertz licenses, and much of the company’s 700 MHz holdings. AT&T has already hit the limit for 3.45 GHz holdings the Federal Communications Commission set when it auctioned the spectrum, an effort to prevent consolidation in the market.

“The aggregation limit doesn’t expire until January 2026.  Either AT&T is hoping to secure a waiver from the FCC to close the transaction before then, or they will only close the transaction after January 2026,” New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin wrote in a research note after Thursday’s deal was announced.

T-Mobile has eschewed 3.45 GHz for its 5G network in favor of 2.5 GHz, which the company says has better propagation. But AT&T is still betting on the spectrum, in addition to C-band, to serve its wireless customers.

UScellular will be left with its C-band spectrum, and some lower band, about 30 percent of that spectrum it held before the T-Mobile deal, plus some millimeter wave holdings. Therivel noted in the release that “the substantial majority of retained value” is in the company’s C-band.

“We will continue to look for ways to opportunistically monetize the C-band, as well as the other remaining spectrum,” Therivel said.