T-Mobile Completes Buy of Wireless Assets From UScellular
T-Mobile closed its purchase of spectrum, customers and other assets from UScellular, it announced Friday. The closing of the $4.3 billion deal was expected, though opponents filed an application for review just days before, asking the FCC to rescind the approval, which was done on delegated authority by the Wireless Bureau (see 2507310041). UScellular's brand "will transition in phases," T-Mobile said.
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Laurent Therivel, now the former CEO of UScellular, noted that the carrier had served its markets for more than 40 years. “The completion of our transaction with T-Mobile ensures that mission endures, as customers across our footprint will have an even better network experience,” he said.
“More than four million UScellular customers, including businesses, will soon get access to blazing fast speeds on the nation’s best network and have the opportunity to unlock value, new perks and savings on a T-Mobile plan,” T-Mobile said. “Hundreds of thousands of households in UScellular’s footprint that previously lacked access to high-speed connectivity will soon be eligible for T-Mobile’s popular in-home broadband service.”
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Friday approved UScellular’s proposal to relinquish its eligible telecommunications carrier designations in New Hampshire, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia (see 2505210029). T-Mobile’s Assurance Wireless brand “is currently designated an ETC in the states at issue,” the bureau noted. “UScellular indicates that T-Mobile commits to providing continued service to … eligible Lifeline customers in those states.”
Meanwhile, lawyers Mark O’Connor and Sara Leibman, who earlier urged the FCC not to act on the transaction (see 2507230030), also filed an application for a review of it.
The lawyers cited False Claims Act allegations against UScellular and designated entities, including King Street. The Wireless Bureau erred in dismissing their concerns with just a few sentences in the approval order, they said. “For more than 15 years, UScellular has knowingly conspired with King Street to make false statements and withhold critical evidence of its wrongdoing in order to cover up its violations of multiple designated entity regulations, including the de facto control, attributable material relationship, management agreement controlling interest and joint venture rule.”