Verizon has closed on the purchase of up to 75MHz of spectrum from Array Digital Infrastructure
After T-Mobile closed on the purchase, UScellular changed its name to Array Digital Infrastructure and kept 4,400 cell towers. Space on 2,000 of the latter was leased to T-Mobile. Separately, Verizon acquired the following spectrum:
- Up to 25 MHz of cellular spectrum.
- Up to 20 MHz of AWS-1 spectrum.
- Up to 10 MHz of AWS-3 spectrum.
- Up to 20 MHz of PCS spectrum.
Other Array assets were sold to T-Mobile
Array also divested other assets to T-Mobile, receiving $168 million. Those assets included spectrum licenses in the low-band (600MHz and 700MHz). The company said that closing the deal with Verizon and doing the divestiture with T-Mobile completed its goal of monetizing its remaining spectrum.
All former UScellular customers will become T-Mobile customers over the summer
Array’s president and CEO Anthony Carlson, commenting on the deals with Verizon and T-Mobile, said the company had made “significant progress in our spectrum monetization efforts and is pleased with the value realized in this sale.” The company leases its towers and made a deal with Verizon last December allowing the carrier to use some of the towers to improve its 5G network.
Verizon CEO Dan Schulman. | Image by Verzon
The UScellular customers that decided to stick with T-Mobile are now dealing with something they probably didn’t think about when they were UScellular customers. Once these former UScellular customers complete the migration of their accounts to T-Mobile, expected to take place this summer, they will have to deal with the new digital T-Mobile requiring all phone upgrades, line management, bill payments and more to be handled by the T-Life app.
Despite comments made by CEO Schulman, Verizon has yet to delight its customers
Verizon subscribers I know, including myself (with over 20 years as a Verizon subscriber under my belt), have yet to be delighted since Schulman took over last year. Of course, his tenure got off to a rocky start just three months after he replaced Hans Vestberg as the carrier’s CEO last October 6.
Mr. Schulman: where is your customer-first culture? When will you start delighting customers?
Verizon subscribers still are waiting to see what Dan Schulman meant when he said that he wants Verizon to have a “customer-first culture.” They also are dying to know what he intends to do to “delight subscribers.”
