T-Mobile/UScellular deal gets more static over spectrum

Consumer advocacy groups and rural wireless operators continue to voice their concerns about the tie-up between T-Mobile and UScellular. Recently, they added a new twist to their requests: They want the Federal Communications Commission to view UScellular’s separate spectrum deals as one big single transaction. T-Mobile struck a deal to acquire UScellular’s wireless assets and 4 million customers in May 2024, including its 600 MHz, 700 MHz, 2.5 GHz, AWS and PCS spectrum. A few months later, AT&T and Verizon agreed to buy some of UScellular’s spectrum for about $1 billion each. AT&T is going after its 3.45 GHz and 700 MHz spectrum, while Verizon’s transaction involves 850 MHz, AWS and PCS licenses. The Rural Wireless Association (RWA), Communications Workers of America (CWA), Public Knowledge, New America’s Open Technology Institute and the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society want regulators to zoom out from the T-Mobile deal and view the broader impact of these deals as if they were one. “Viewed collectively, the three transactions effectuate a scheme that would likely violate the antitrust laws were it subject to them," the groups wrote in a May 12 filing to the FCC.