AT&T Move in 600 MHz Licenses Not Negative for T-Mobile, Wells Fargo Says
AT&T’s decision to sell 600 MHz licenses it bought in the incentive auction (see 1801080017) doesn’t have negative implications for T-Mobile, the top bidder in the auction, Wells Fargo’s Jennifer Fritzsche emailed investors Friday. “After reviewing T’s [AT&T’s] bidding activity,…
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it is clear to us that T made a strategic decision to stop bidding on 600 MHz licenses during Stage 1 Round 22,” Fritzsche said. “We suspect this was driven by T’s confidence it was going to win the FirstNet contract, along with 20 MHz of 700 MHz and $6.5 [billion] that came with it, and opted to deemphasize its auction bidding activity.” The outlook remains bright for T-Mobile, she wrote. “Based on our conversations with spectrum experts this past week -- we remain even more enthused about [T-Mobile’s] spectrum portfolio and the opportunity it has to run with the 5G message.”