A Look at USCellular's Spectrum Ownership in Spektrum Metrics' Map Views August 9, 2023 15:41

The news that TDS is exploring "strategic alternatives" for USCellular has created a heightened interest in how our spectrum ownership tools can be used to breakdown the components of USCellular's spectrum to highlight where they would create the most synergies for the remaining wireless carriers.

I want to initially look at the cellular bands, since both AT&T and Verizon are utilizing the cellular bands for their low band 5G.  From the Spectrum Depth Maps below you can see that there are areas in both carrier's footprints that lack a true 5G coverage strategy.

Verizon:

AT&T:

Now, looking at the USCellular map, it is clear that USCellular is the primary cellular licensee after AT&T and Verizon.

USCellular:

It is also helpful to look at our Spectrum Ownership Maps to see how USCellular's spectrum aligns with the two cellular licenses (A and B).  Our Spectrum Ownership Maps show the primary licensee for each channel for every county and territory in the United States.  Each county that a national carrier controls is color-coded with their branding colors.

Cellular A:

The Cellular A map indicates that there are counties in Washington, Oregon, and Northern California that fit perfectly with the overall AT&T A band licenses.  Note:  the white counties are controlled by various smaller carriers which can be identified by "flying" over the county in our Web Spectrum Viewer Mapping Module.

Cellular B:

The Cellular B map indicates the counties in Washington and Oregon that would be a natural fit with Verizon's B channel licenses.

Our next blog with utilize some of the tabular analysis functions from the Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool starting with an assignment of each cellular county to AT&T or Verizon, concluding with a MHz-POPs quantity for the acquisition of USCellular's cellular spectrum.