By Denny Jacob

U.S. Cellular agreed to sell a portion of its retained spectrum licenses to AT&T for a consideration of $1.02 billion.

Chicago-based U.S. Cellular, which caters mostly to rural customers across several states, said the purchase price is payable in cash. It noted that substantially all of the transaction is contingent on an earlier deal with T-Mobile.

"As with the other mobile network operators, we are confident that AT&T can put it to productive use in communities throughout the U.S.," U.S. Cellular Chief Executive Laurent Therivel said.

T-Mobile US in May agreed to buy much of U.S. Cellular's operations in a roughly $4.4 billion deal. The agreement, which includes up to $2 billion of assumed debt, would give T-Mobile more than four million new customers and a trove of valuable spectrum rights to carry more of their data over the air. The companies said they expect the deal to close in mid-2025.

U.S. Cellular said that, including the proposed deal with T-Mobile, it will have reached agreements to monetize about 70% of its total spectrum holdings.

Write to Denny Jacob at denny.jacob@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 07, 2024 07:51 ET (12:51 GMT)

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