AT&T has closed its acquisition of FiberTower, giving it millimeter wave (mmW) spectrum that will be put to work later this year to begin the rollout of mobile 5G services.
AT&T paid $207 million to acquire FiberTower and will receive a significant footprint in the 39 GHz band, with average holdings of more than 375 MHz in the top 100 markets.
AT&T plans to use the millimeter wave spectrum obtained in the deal to help meet its goal of being the first U.S. company to introduce mobile 5G in a dozen markets by late 2018.
Granting the approval for the spectrum transfer, FCC said in a statement that, “AT&T’s post-transaction spectrum holdings across the 39 GHz bands do not raise any competitive concerns in light of the current state of the marketplace and our millimeter wave (mmW) spectrum holdings threshold. We find that public interest benefits are likely to be realized from the transfer, including the expeditious use of this mmW spectrum for the potential introduction of innovative fifth-generation (5G) services to the benefit of American consumers.”
