Telecom Lead America: Sprint will acquire PCS spectrum and customers for $480 million in cash from U.S. Cellular.
The acquisition will enable Sprint to enhance presence in parts of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio including the Chicago and St. Louis markets.
Sprint will use additional spectrum to supplement Sprint’s coverage in these areas as it continues to deploy its Network Vision upgrade and roll out 4G LTE nationally.
Sprint is targeting to offer 4G LTE in more than 115 additional cities in the coming months.
“This transaction will enable us to strengthen our business and become a more robust competitor,” said Dan Hesse, Sprint’s CEO. “Acquiring this spectrum will significantly increase Sprint’s network capacity and improve the customer experience in several important Midwest markets including Chicago and St. Louis.”
Sprint will acquire 20 MHz of PCS spectrum in the 1900 MHz band in various Midwest markets including Chicago, South Bend, Ind. and Champaign, Ill. and 10 MHz of PCS spectrum in the St. Louis market. In addition, the transaction involves approximately 585,000 U.S. Cellular customers.
U.S Cellular will continue its business operations outside of these markets following the closing.
