AT&T Buys Verizon Spectrum For $1.9 Billion

By Zak Islam
published

Spectrum is part of U.S. carrier's 700MHz B block.

Days after paying $780 million in cash to buy Atlantic Tele-Network Inc's Alltel wireless business, U.S. carrier AT&T has acquired wireless airwaves from Verizon Wireless for $1.9 billion in cash.

The spectrum being bought is part of Verizon's 700MHz B block, which it doesn't utilize. As part of the deal, AT&T will give up a batch of wireless licenses covering certain western markets. AT&T said the licenses it's buying from Verizon covers a population of 42 million within 18 U.S. states.

"While on the surface this appears to be a rich price, we would note that the B block licenses that AT&T is acquiring are concentrated in major metropolitan markets," said Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche.

During the August of 2012, AT&T, which is investing $14 billion to upgrade its wireless networks in order to expand 4G LTE coverage, purchased wireless company NextWave Wireless Inc for its spectrum holdings for $50 million and $550 million of debt.

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Zak Islam
8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Skippy27
    Wait we have a spectrum crunch how can Verizon possibly afford to lose this spectrum when their network is so over loaded and in needs of caps to manage it?

    /sarcasm off
    Reply
  • g00fysmiley
    otacon72Verizon's network is humming along nicely. I get service everywhere I go and their LTE service blows everyone else out of the water. If you use more than 2gb a month in bandwidth on your smartphone you deserve to pay more.
    don't fall into the people who use more data shoudl pay more... it is just a way to add fees adn overage costs to their bottom line. i am not on big red, i left them for altell and then to sprint when big red bought them out. I now am with sprint because unlimited data even on 3g is somethign i will support, even on 3g i usually run 10+ gigs a month.

    it will be even easier for you to use your 2 gigs a month on 4g lte once these 1080p screens become more used, if your phone automates to use a good connection Assuming 16/9 aspect, 8 bit/channel/pixel, 4:2:0 chroma subsampling and 60 fps; an uncompressed 1020p stream should be 1492992000 b/s or just under 1.5 Gb/s.( ... 8 gigs for 100 min video so gratz by your 2 gig limit should somebody with a 1080p screen want to watch a true 1080p video on a x264 compression can watch 25 min before experienceing fees and charges unless they choose a lower format
    Reply
  • samwelaye
    g00fysmileyit will be even easier for you to use your 2 gigs a month on 4g lte once these 1080p screens become more used, if your phone automates to use a good connection Assuming 16/9 aspect, 8 bit/channel/pixel, 4:2:0 chroma subsampling and 60 fps; an uncompressed 1020p stream should be 1492992000 b/s or just under 1.5 Gb/s.( ... 8 gigs for 100 min video so gratz by your 2 gig limit should somebody with a 1080p screen want to watch a true 1080p video on a x264 compression can watch 25 min before experienceing fees and charges unless they choose a lower format
    Good luck getting that 1.5Gb/s download speed even over LTE. Hell good luck getting that speed any time.

    Even though the screen is 1080p, who the hell needs uncompressed video when they stream? Where are you streaming this uncompressed stream from? Use realistic workloads here come on. Not saying things like Netflix and Hulu wont use up your data, but you are extremely exaggerating and giving a 100% impossible scenario.
    Reply
  • merikafyeah
    I agree with this guy on capped data: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6SiBFB7FIw

    2GB is simply a sh1tty limit and everyone supporting it should feel ashamed.
    Reply
  • Camikazi
    otacon72Verizon's network is humming along nicely. I get service everywhere I go and their LTE service blows everyone else out of the water. If you use more than 2gb a month in bandwidth on your smartphone you deserve to pay more.Unlimited 4G here, why exactly should I pay more if I make use of more than 2GB again? I pay for unlimited not unlimited until we decide you should pay more.
    Reply
  • injected_metal
    Are you kidding me? 2 gb is crap, I'm stuck on Verizon and lost my unlimited when I got a new phone and the limit blows. I get good speed, but when I watch Netflix I go through around 100 mb for 10 minutes of video, I watched 2 episodes of Merlin and nearly 50% was already used up. They are just trying to nickel and dime us. I used to be able to buy a phone and renew my contact for 2 more years but now if I want to do that I have to pay a $30 upgrade fee too.
    Reply
  • therabiddeer
    samwelayeGood luck getting that 1.5Gb/s download speed even over LTE. Hell good luck getting that speed any time. Even though the screen is 1080p, who the hell needs uncompressed video when they stream? Where are you streaming this uncompressed stream from? Use realistic workloads here come on. Not saying things like Netflix and Hulu wont use up your data, but you are extremely exaggerating and giving a 100% impossible scenario.He said a 100 minute video is 8GB, which translates to around 1.33MB/s (this is the x264 encoded video). I dont know why he talks about uncompressed 1080p though.

    That said, 4g LTE at my house is 14 down and ~4 up. I can burn through my 4GB in a heartbeat. Or more specifically, around 45 minutes. Beyond that, its $10/2GB (or $10/1GB if I dont add data before I reach the cap). Which means youre paying ~$26/hour for internet usage. So a 1080p movie would cost you around $50. Seems pretty absurd, doesnt it?
    Reply
  • Mathos
    Good thing I still have my grandfathered unlimited data on Verizon. Depending on where I am, at home on 4g I get about 15mb down and 7mb up. When I was in georgia on vacation near Chattanooga,tn, I was getting 25mb down 10mb up. Granted there, even 3g was running about 4mb down 2mb up on my Droid Razr.
    Reply