T-Mobile USA to buy, swap spectrum with Verizon

NEW YORK (AP) — Verizon Wireless on Monday said that it has agreed to sell some wireless spectrum rights to T-Mobile USA and swap others, in a continuing quest to get regulators to approve a bigger spectrum deal it has worked out with a consortium of cable companies and another wireless carrier.

The deal with T-Mobile USA would improve the ability of both companies to offer fast wireless data services, Verizon said. T-Mobile, the fourth-largest U.S. wireless companies, is particularly starved for spectrum compared to its larger competitors, and regulators are likely to favor a deal that would improve its position.

Neither T-Mobile nor Verizon said what T-Mobile would pay Verizon for the spectrum.

The Verizon-T-Mobile deal is contingent on Verizon getting government approval for three deals to buy spectrum from cable companies and Leap Wireless for a total of about $4 billion. Those deals were struck in November and December, but have met resistance from public-interest groups who say the cellphone company, already the nation's largest, doesn't need more spectrum and shouldn't be cozying up to competitors such as the cable companies.

To get the three earlier deals through, Verizon has already offered to auction other airwaves it isn't using.

Cellphone companies need spectrum rights, or slots on the airwaves, to do business much like radio stations do. With the growth of wireless data use, cellphone companies have a newfound need for more spectrum. The amount of spectrum they have available in any area determines the maximum download speeds they can offer.

T-Mobile, which is a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG of Germany, said the Verizon deal encompasses spectrum in 218 areas, and would improve its spectrum position in 15 of the top 25 markets in the U.S., notably Philadelphia, Washington, Detroit and Seattle.

T-Mobile hopes to put the spectrum to use as early as next year, if the Federal Communications Commission approves the deal this summer.

"This is good for T-Mobile and good for consumers because it will enable T-Mobile to compete even more vigorously with other wireless carriers," T-Mobile USA CEO Philipp Humm said, in a statement.

Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. of New York and Vodafone Group PLC of Britain.

Tags: business, technology