AT&T Completes Acquisition of Verizon Wireless Spectrum

Yesterday, AT&T announced that they have completed the acquisition of Verizon Wireless’ spectrum in the lower 700 MHz band B block.  The acquired licenses cover 42 million people in 18 states — California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.

By acquiring this spectrum AT&T will be able to deploy their ever growing 4G LTE network to meet the demand for mobile Internet services. AT&T’s 4G LTE network currently covers more than 225 million people. They hope to reach 270 million people by the end of this year and finish the build by the summer of 2014.

In exchange for the 700 MHz spectrum, AT&T paid $1.9 billion in cash and transferred Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum licenses in Phoenix, Ariz.; Los Angeles and Fresno, Calif.; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Portland, Ore.