T-Mobile Looks Like Clear 'Winner' of 2.5 GHz Auction: Moffett

Spectrum auctions usually don’t have clear winners, but T-Mobile looks like it won the 2.5 GHz auction, MoffettNathanson’s Craig Moffett told investors. The auction ended Monday with net proceeds of $427.8 million (see 2208290043). “While we won’t know for sure who ‘won’ the licenses in question for another week or so, it is universally assumed that T-Mobile was far and away the auction’s principal buyer,” Moffett said: It's “the only U.S. company that uses 2.5 GHz spectrum (2.5 GHz is the backbone spectrum band of their 5G network), and the licenses at auction were best seen as the ‘holes in the Swiss cheese’ of T-Mobile’s otherwise national 2.5 GHz footprint. There was a great deal of spectrum here for sale, but it wasn’t geographically contiguous, and thus it would be difficult for anyone other than T-Mobile to use it.” Few speculators likely jumped in, he said. “If there is but one true exit -- i.e., to sell to T-Mobile -- then bidding more than T-Mobile was willing to pay would seem an ill-advised strategy.” The spectrum adds to T-Mobile’s “already-large spectrum advantage versus Verizon and AT&T” at a “much lower price than had been expected,” he said. “We congratulate the FCC on completing the 2.5 GHz auction, which will help enhance 5G coverage across the country,” emailed CTIA Senior Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Scott Bergmann: “We look forward to working with Congress, the FCC and the Administration to identify the next 5G auction of licensed spectrum that will be critical to maintaining our position as the world’s innovation hub and leader of the growing 5G economy.”