Utilities, Rural Carriers at Odds on Spectrum Deal with T-Mobile, Grain
The carrier is looking to sell its 800 MegaHertz (MHz) licenses for cash and Grain's 600 MHz holdings.
WASHINGTON, June 25, 2025 – Utilities and rural carriers are at odds on whether the Federal Communications Commission should allow a spectrum transfer between T-Mobile and Grain Management.
T-Mobile and Grain announced in March a deal in which Grain would buy about 15 megahertz of spectrum in the carrier’s 800 MegaHertz (MHz) band in exchange for an undisclosed sum of cash and the firm’s holdings in the 600 MHz band.
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.
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“Without any hard commitments made by Grain, there is a significant risk that the spectrum will remain idle or be resold to larger entities during this proposed 12-year license buildout period, which defeats the FCC’s stated public interest goals,” the Rural Wireless Association wrote in a filing posted Monday.
RWA said the FCC should retain the 2028 deadline to ensure the spectrum was promptly deployed, and that 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.
Utilities Technology Council supported the deal
The Utilities Technology Council, which represents utility companies, supported the deal. It said the timeline extensions and other waivers would be necessary for utilities to effectively use the airwaves.
“Utilities will likely be unable as a practical matter to meet the build-out obligations, given the impending renewal dates for most of the licenses and the looming deadlines to meet any necessary milestones,” the group wrote.
Edison Electric Institute, which represents eclectic companies, and Dominion Energy agreed on the timeline argument. Edison supported the deal, and Dominion said it was agnostic but that the agency should grant the deadline waiver if it did approve the transaction.
“It would be extremely challenging to justify a significant investment while facing a substantial risk of losing access to the spectrum after three years due to an inability to meet such stringent performance requirements that are designed primarily for large commercial carriers,” Dominion wrote.
The utilities emphasized the 800 MHz airwaves would be useful for the industry to deploy private networks and monitor their infrastructure.
T-Mobile was supposed to sell the 800 MHz spectrum to Dish
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.
The Competitive Carriers Association, which represents small and regional carriers as well as T-Mobile, supported the deal and the waivers.
“Absent waiver, it would be less likely that utilities and small, rural carriers such as CCA members or the other targeted users of the 800 MHz spectrum at issue would be able to effectively utilize the spectrum, or it would otherwise be unduly burdensome for them to do so,” the group wrote.
Reply comments in the docket are due July 8.
