T-Mobile Explains Complexity of Data Tied to UScellular Buy
T-Mobile representatives met with FCC staffers to discuss the difficulty of calculating eligible and supported households for the purposes of fixed wireless access as the agency considers the company’s proposed buy of wireless assets from UScellular. Parts of the filing, posted Wednesday in docket 24-286, were redacted.
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The FCC has asked a battery of questions about the deal (see 2412270031), which was announced a year ago and is valued at about $4.4 billion, including $2 billion in assumed debt (see 2405280047).
As the FCC considered T-Mobile’s buy of Sprint, T-Mobile “modeled the number of households that might be eligible for such a service, as well as the number of eligible households that might be supported,” the filing said. “Today, the fundamental methodology for calculating eligibility and supportability remains the same, but calculations themselves have been much more complex,” the carrier said: “Like many other T-Mobile systems, the calculations now performed to determine Eligible Households and Supported Households have moved to computing platforms capable of using substantially more input data.”
Meanwhile, the FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment Wednesday on a UScellular proposal to relinquish its eligible telecommunications carrier designations in New Hampshire, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. The relinquishments are contingent on FCC approval of the sale of its wireless assets to T-Mobile. Comments are due June 5, replies June 20, in docket 09-197.