Regional cellular provider UScellular has announced an agreement to sell a portion of its spectrum to Verizon for $1 billion.
The company, which announced the deal over the weekend (October 18), revealed it has also additionally entered into agreements with two other unnamed mobile network operators for the sale of selected spectrum licenses.
Verizon was previously linked with a potential acquisition of UScellular spectrum back in May, shortly before T-Mobile confirmed it had agreed to acquire a significant chunk of UScellular's operations for $4.4 billion, including its customer base and around 30 percent of the company's wireless spectrum.
"We are pleased that significant value for a portion of the remaining licenses will be realized," said Laurent C. Therivel, president and CEO.
"And, importantly, that these agreements with multiple mobile network operators ensure that this spectrum will be put to work for consumers throughout the country. We are continuing the process to opportunistically monetize the remaining spectrum assets not included in today's announcement."
As part of the agreement, UScellular, which serves more than 4.5 million mobile customers across 21 US states, has agreed to sell Verizon 663 million MHz POPs of its Cellular (850 MHz) spectrum licenses, plus 11 million MHz POPs of its AWS and 19 million MHz POPs of its PCS licenses for a total of $1bn.
The deal remains subject to regulatory approval, similar to UScellular's sale of assets to T-Mobile.
Last week, UScellular asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to approve T-Mobile's $4.4bn acquisition of most of its business.
The regional cell provider wrote a letter to the FCC warning that the proposed deal is essential for the company's long-term future.
UScellular added that it had also agreed to sell a total of 12 million MHz POPs of its spectrum licenses across the CBRS, C-Band, and 700 MHz B/C Block bands to two additional mobile network operators. The terms of the deal and the buyers have not been disclosed by the company.
The carrier stated that its Verizon transaction has been approved by TDS (Telephone and Data Systems, Inc.), the company's major shareholder with a stake of 82 percent.
Should all the deals go through as planned, UScellular stated it will retain 3.4 billion MHz POPs of low and mid-band spectrum (700 MHz, 3.45GHz, CBRS, and C-Band), plus 17.2 billion MHz POPs of mmWave spectrum.
