Echostar and AT&T - Spectrum Depth in Every Market
AT&T's press release indicated "AT&T will acquire approximately 30 MHz of nationwide 3.45 GHz mid-band spectrum and approximately 20 MHz of nationwide 600 MHz low-band spectrum for approximately $23 billion in an all-cash transaction, subject to certain adjustments.
These licenses cover virtually every market across the U.S. – over 400 markets in total – significantly strengthening AT&T’s low-band and mid-band spectrum holdings."
With these press statements it is always fun to look at the key words that I have highlighted in bold.
The "approximately" statements are highlighting the national average spectrum depth that Echostar is providing to AT&T. In reviewing our database of filed transactions it is important to recognize that there are two pending transaction currently filed between Echostar and Omega Wireless potentially affecting the actual spectrum licenses available to AT&T. In one transaction Echostar is acquiring 119 - 600MHz licenses from Omega Wireless and in the second transaction Omega Wireless is acquiring 6 - 3.45GHz licenses from Echostar.
From our spectrum database we can highlight the spectrum depth that Echostar currently owns in each band and the spectrum depth that Echostar will own when all filed transaction are completed.
Looking back at AT&T's press release the 18 or 19 MHz of 600MHz is approximately 20 MHz and the 3.45GHz spectrum depth approximately equals 30 MHz.
The last statement to evaluation is the over 400 markets statement. Many times markets can be considered counties, but since both of these spectrum bands were auctioned with Partial Economic Area (PEA) market boundaries, we are going to evaluate the 400 market claim with regard to the 416 official PEA markets.
Below are two images highlighting the amount of spectrum that Echostar directly controls in each PEA market going into the transaction with AT&T. The spectrum that is being acquired from Omega Wireless or sold to Omega Wireless is broken out in separate columns since it is unclear whether these will ultimately roll up into the AT&T transaction.
