Acquisition Tracker
Announced October 18, 2024

Verizon acquires UScellular spectrum licenses (850 MHz, AWS, PCS)

Acquirer
Verizon
Target
UScellular spectrum licenses (850 MHz, AWS, PCS)
Deal Value
$1.0B
Status
Announced
Announced
October 18, 2024

What happened

UScellular agreed to sell Verizon a package of spectrum licenses — 663 million MHz-POPs of 850 MHz cellular plus AWS and PCS holdings — for $1.0 billion in cash. The sale is part of UScellular's stated plan to monetize the spectrum excluded from its pending $4.4 billion sale of wireless operations and spectrum to T-Mobile, and follows the company's announcement that it was shopping its remaining licenses to multiple buyers.

Why it matters

The fourth-largest US carrier is being disassembled in orderly, billion-dollar increments — operations to T-Mobile, low-band to Verizon, with AT&T's turn coming weeks later. Every one of these transfers deepens the big three's spectrum position in regional markets before regulators have ruled on the main event. For wholesale buyers, the capacity landscape is consolidating in real time.

Spectrum
United States

Source: PR Newswire