T-Cell is shopping for airwaves from Comcast in a deal valued at as much as $3.3 billion. In a blog post on Comcast’s site, the corporate explains that it’s going to promote spectrum within the 600MHz band as it’s “unlikely” to wish it.
Comcast announced plans to construct out a 5G community for its Xfinity Cell service final yr utilizing spectrum within the 600MHz band and CBRS — an unlicensed spectrum in the 3.5GHz range that corporations can use free of charge. Nevertheless, Comcast says 5G subject checks with CBRS spectrum “exceeded” its expectations and that it’s “discovered the band to be extremely environment friendly and a big a part of a 5G community.”
That’s why Comcast not sees a use for its 600MHz spectrum, which it says T-Cell will lease to buy. As a part of the deal, T-Cell can pay quarterly lease funds “adopted by a last cost of roughly $3.3 billion” to buy the license.
A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission confirms that T-Cell plans to accumulate the spectrum, including that the service expects the deal to shut in 2028, relying on approval from the Federal Communications Fee. The spectrum will cowl main cities like New York, New York; Orlando, Florida; Kansas Metropolis, Missouri; and extra.
There’s nonetheless an opportunity that Comcast will wish to claw among the 600MHz airwaves again, because it notes it has “secured the choice to reclaim” the spectrum if it decides it would want the spectrum sooner or later. T-Cell has used 600Mhz spectrum to construct out its 5G community prior to now. It first switched on its low-band 600MHz 5G community in 2019, which blankets many elements of the US, and spent an additional $3.5 billion on 600MHz spectrum final August.