With an official offer still lacking, rumors of a tie-up between Sprint and T-Mobile US continue to flourish, with the latest round suggesting a partnership between the two operators in tackling the upcoming 600 MHz incentive auction process.
The Wall Street Journal reported that as part of a financial package being offered by Sprint owner Softbank to T-Mobile US owner Deutsche Telekom, is a plan to raise $10 billion to be used in the pending government spectrum auction. The report notes that the funds are part of a $45 billion financing package being put together by Softbank in order to gain control of T-Mobile US.
Reports have been surfacing for months that Softbank was preparing an offer for T-Mobile US, with the latest round of rumors suggesting a $32 billion offer could be presented next month. Sprint’s management, which reportedly would not survive the proposed deal, has hinted that it may bypass the Federal Communications Commission’s upcoming AWS-3 auction and focus instead on the 600 MHz incentive auction scheduled for mid-2015.
T-Mobile US has been a strong proponent of the 600 MHz auction proceedings, especially in attempting to craft rulemaking that would limit bidding eligibility for operators that currently control a majority of sub-1 GHz spectrum licenses. Those limitations would be geared predominately at Verizon Wireless and AT&T.
AT&T has already said it planned to spend up to $9 billion in the auction as part of its proposed acquisition of DirecTV, having previously threatened to abstain from the auction proceedings if rules limited the carrier’s participation. Following release of the auction rules in mid-May, AT&T said it would indeed participate and that it would look to acquire between 20 megahertz and 40 megahertz of spectrum from the proceedings.
In a recent update of its spectrum screen policy, the FCC included language that would seem to undermine Softbank’s attempt to acquire T-Mobile US. The FCC noted in its rules that any sort of change in the current market conditions “affecting the top four nationwide providers and their spectrum holdings” would result in the government agency reviewing its initial plans for reserved spectrum being set aside for the 600 MHz spectrum auction.
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