en.Wedoany.com Reported - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved the spectrum swap agreement between T-Mobile and private investment firm Grain Management, subject to several conditions. Under the proposed transaction announced in March last year, T-Mobile will transfer its 800MHz licenses to Grain in exchange for $2.9 billion in cash and the investor's 600MHz licenses.

In its approval order, the FCC stated that it agreed with concerns raised during the consultation process that allowing the transfer of 800MHz licenses could lead to spectrum hoarding. To ensure this does not happen, the agency imposed "strict conditions" on Grain. Grain had previously proposed a six-year interim construction deadline and a twelve-year final construction deadline, but the FCC rejected this proposal and shortened the timelines to three years and eight years, respectively.

Two weeks before the approval order was issued, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sent a letter to the FCC expressing concerns about Grain's proposal and calling for the deal to be approved only with "enforceable deployment requirements," according to Reuters.

The FCC also granted a conditional waiver allowing "technical flexibility," aimed at encouraging "intensive use" of the 800MHz licenses. Notably, this acknowledges the "convergence" of wireless and satellite services. The spectrum can in the future be leased not only to terrestrial mobile network operators but also to utilities, enterprises, and satellite operators for direct-to-device (D2D) services.

The decision to allow the use of 800MHz licenses for space-based supplemental coverage puts satellite operator AST SpaceMobile in the spotlight. The company already supports the 800MHz band on its ten in-orbit satellites. In a letter to the FCC this week, AST SpaceMobile stated it plans to submit an experimental application "soon" to test the use of this spectrum. The licenses Grain acquires in this band include paired frequencies of 817MHz–824MHz and 862MHz–869MHz.

For T-Mobile, the deal will increase its 600MHz spectrum holdings for 5G services and ultimately divest the 800MHz frequencies it has been trying to sell for years. The operator acquired the 800MHz spectrum when it purchased Sprint in 2020 and was required to sell it as part of regulatory approval conditions. Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner said, "The biggest winner is clearly T-Mobile. This swap transfers spectrum that is effectively unusable for them and swaps it for usable spectrum, which is very clever."

The FCC positioned the approval of the deal as its latest effort to "bring more intensive spectrum use to the U.S. market" and concluded that the risk of harm to the public interest is low. The FCC stated that T-Mobile's acquisition of 600MHz spectrum "is likely to result in greater capacity, speed, and reliability for its customers." Additionally, Grain's acquisition of 800MHz spectrum "paves the way for technical flexibility in the band and robust, timely deployment, including the potential for expanded use by D2D operators, private utilities, and other enterprises."