AT&T to buy 4G spectrum licence from Qualcomm for $1.925 billion
21 Dec 2010
AT&T Inc, the largest provider of fixed line phones and the second-largest mobile-phone carrier in the US, yesterday announced that it will pay $1.925 billion to buy spectrum licenses from Qualcomm to expand its 4G capacity.
''The move will bolster AT&T's ability to provide an advanced broadband experience for its customers in the years ahead,'' the Dallas, Texas-based company said in a statement.
The spectrum covers more than 300 million people in the United States. It would cover 70 million people in the New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco areas and more than 230 million people across the rest of the country.
The licenses, which are in the lower 700 MHz frequency band, are currently being used by San Diego-based Qualcomm for its mobile-TV business FLO TV that will be shut down in March 2011.
Qualcomm, the world's largest fab-less chip supplier, had acquired the spectrum in government auctions between 2003 and 2008, at an average price of $680 million to kick-start FLO TV. It's now shutting down the business after failing to attract customers.
FLO TV allowed users to watch broadcast TV on their mobile phones.
