What Verizon and AT&T didn’t consider was that the characteristics of mmWave are such that these signals travel short distances making them almost impossible for subscribers to find. T-Mobile, on the other hand, took advantage of the longer mid-band wavelengths. While downlink mid-band signals aren’t faster than mmWave, they are much faster than low-band signals, and thus, T-Mobile‘s 2.5GHz mid-band spectrum helped the wireless provider take the early U.S. leadership in 5G.
20MHz of 3.45GHz spectrum is being traded by T-Mobile to SoniqWave for more 2.5GHz airwaves. But to remain below the spectrum screens that would force T-Mobile to divest some of its spectrum, the carrier will not keep all of the 600 MHz, 700 A block, PCS, and AWS spectrum owned by US Cellular. T-Mobile wants to remain under the low-band spectrum screen bar of 68MHz and the low+mid-band spectrum screen bar of 385 MHz in order to speed up approval of the U.S. Cellular purchase.
Instead, T-Mobile will most likely lease the spectrum used by U.S. Cellular (850 MHz, 3.45GHz C-band, 700 B & C blocks, and 28 GHz mmWave) for a year following the closing of the acquisition. After that, T-Mobile could look to permanently add some 700 A block and 600MHz low-band spectrum to its holdings.
