T-mobile proposes nearly $4.5 billion deal to buy most of U.S. Cellular
In a $4.4 billion deal, the regional carrier’s 4 million customers and spectrum would become a part of T-Mobile. What will the Biden admin do?
In a deal the companies expect to close after the presidential election in mid-2025, T-mobile stands to gain about 30% of U.S. Cellular’s valuable spectrum holdings and customers in the middle of the country. The Pink carrier recently announced it would purchase Mint Mobile for $1.3 billion, a direct-to-consumer MVNO part-owned by Ryan Reynolds.
The Journal reported earlier this month that Verizon was in talks to purchase the Chicago-based carrier’s assets. U.S. Cellular’s footprint spans much of the rural middle of the country—Iowa, Wisconsin, Maine, North Carolina, Texas, and Oklahoma, according to Wikipedia. U.S. Cellular will not sell its cellphone towers or the majority of its spectrum licenses; T-mobile, meanwhile, will extend or sign new long-term leases on approximately 2,600 U.S. Cellular sites for at least 15 years.
The deal must pass regulatory scrutiny, potentially complicated by T-mobile’s foreign control by Deutsche Telekom. Despite US pressure, the European carriers have generally been slower to rip and replace Chinese telecommunications infrastructure, including that supporting 5G.
Even more concerning from a privacy standpoint, as Toronto’s Citizen Lab reported in October, weaknesses in international roaming technology allow the sale of real-time locations of users. It would be highly unusual to see such matters raised as part of an evaluation of the companies’ merger, however.
