Verizon and T-Mobile attempt to gobble up US Cellular

The report suggests it’s about harvesting even more wireless spectrum; my colleague Allison pointed out in 2022 that US Cellular “tends to offer service where some of the major carriers don’t.” (It would certainly be nice for T-Mobile and Verizon customers to have better coverage, but I’d rather have the competition lower my wireless bill.)

T-Mobile would pay more than $2 billion for wireless spectrum licenses, take over ‘certain operations’; THE WSJ won’t say what Verizon wants, but says US Cellular “also owns more than 4,000 cell towers that were not part of the latest sales negotiations.”

The idea behind the division of US Cellular between T-Mobile and Verizon, the WSJ suggests, is to prevent antitrust regulators from blocking the deal. Regulators ultimately let T-Mobile merge with Sprint after promising it would make Dish a new fourth U.S. wireless carrier, but last time we checked, Dish hadn’t yet become a significant competitor.