T-Mobile Buys 700 MHz Spectrum from Verizon

[cdmagurus.com]

Verizon has agreed to sell T-Mobile $3 billion worth of its 700 MHz radio spectrum licenses. The licenses were purchased from the FCC in 2008 but have sat unused since then. They cover the "A" block of the lower 700 MHz band, used by phones with LTE band 12. The licenses cover 21 of the top 30 markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Washington D.C., and Detroit. T-Mobile already has A-block licenses for Boston. The transaction will give T-Mobile 700 MHz A-block spectrum covering a total of 158 million people. T-Mobile hopes to launch 700 MHz service and phones by the end of 2014. Verizon will retain its upper 700 MHz C-block spectrum and continue offering LTE service in that band. T-Mobile will pay Verizon $2.365 billion in cash for the new spectrum, plus the trade of certain AWS (1700 MHz) and PCS (1900 MHz) spectrum licenses worth approximately $950 million.


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