Verizon & AT&T Swap Spectrum in $1.9 Billion Deal

Verizon announced on Friday that it has sold spectrum in the 700 MHz band to AT&T, while AT&T sold spectrum in the AWS band to Verizon. The deal is part of the cell phone industry's eternal efforts to balance its spectrum use across the U.S.

AT&T paid almost $2 billion for Verizon radio spectrum

AT&T will pay US$1.9 billion as well as "AWS (10 MHz) licenses in certain western markets, including Los Angeles, Phoenix, Fresno and Portland, Oregon" to Verizon. For that price, AT&T is getting 39 lower 700 MHz B Block licenses in several markets throughout the US.

Those markets:

Verizon also said it was licensing LTE spectrum to 20 rural operators in order to jumpstart the deployment of LTE in rural America.

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