T-Mobile Got Everything It Wanted in 2.5 GHz Auction: Javid
The 2.5 GHz auction was “an undisputed win” for T-Mobile (see 2209010060), Sasha Javid, BitPath chief operating officer, said in an analysis posted Friday. “T-Mobile spent $304 million to acquire 7,156 licenses covering by my estimates over 93% of the…
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available POPs in this auction and over 67% of the nationwide POPs (including territories),” he said: “T-Mobile won licenses with an average depth over 100 MHz in each county. It also picked up most licenses in the 25 largest counties. … Better yet, T-Mobile paid only $0.014 per MHz-POP, or roughly $0.06 when you only consider the unencumbered MHz-POPs.” Javid said Verizon, not Dish Network as some speculated at the time (see 2208080061), was the bidder that shed demand in round six. “Verizon had over $56 million in processed demand in Round 5 before dropping substantially to just $1.5 million in Round 6,” he said: “Maybe one day, someone will explain what Verizon's strategy was in this auction. My suspicion is that they realized early that they could be stuck with unwanted licenses so their goal of driving up prices for T-Mobile was too risky.” AT&T not bidding wasn’t a surprise, Javid said, noting he thought Dish would “dabble” since prices were so low. “I guess even [Chairman] Charlie Ergen is feeling the pressure of those build out deadlines for DISH's existing spectrum assets,” he said.