U.S. Cellular continued to rationalize its spectrum position, announcing today plans to sell 10 megahertz of spectrum in the 1.7/2.1 GHz band to T-Mobile US for $308 million. The licenses cover 32 million potential customers in 29 markets in the Mississippi Valley region, including a number of larger markets like St. Louis, Nashville, Kansas City, Memphis, Little Rock and New Orleans.
T-Mobile US said the spectrum would be used to bolster its LTE network rollout, which is set to reach 200 million potential customers by the end of this year. That network is reliant on the 1.7/2.1 GHz band, also known as the advanced wireless services band, following the carrier’s realignment of its network resources. The carrier also bolstered its holdings in that band with its acquisition earlier this year of MetroPCS, which T-Mobile US said would allow the carrier to throw up to 40 megahertz of spectrum at its LTE deployment in certain markets, as well as a handful of other deals involving the AWS band.
For U.S. Cellular, which replaced its CEO last weekend, the move follows the sale last year of 1.9 GHz spectrum licenses covering a number of Midwest markets to Sprint Nextel for $480 million. That deal included spectrum assets, networks assets and approximately 585,000 customers, and involved St. Louis and U.S. Cellular’s home market of Chicago.
At the time, then CEO Mary Dillon noted the deal would allow the carrier to focus its efforts on less competitive rural markets.
“In the dynamic wireless marketplace, we have a clear strategy to accelerate profitable growth and increase return on investment over the long term, and we are taking decisive steps to achieve it,” said Dillon. “Exiting these markets enables us to play to our strengths in markets where we have higher penetration and where we can effectively sharpen our proven strategy to differentiate the U.S. Cellular customer experience from other wireless carriers.”
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