T-Mobile to acquire most of US Cellular’s assets in $4.4B deal

T-Mobile announced on Tuesday that it agreed to acquire “substantially all” of U.S. Cellular’s wireless operations in a deal valued at $4.4 billion. Under the deal, T-Mobile will acquire all of U.S. Cellular’s wireless customers and stores. The deal also includes up to $2 billion in debt. T-Mobile said the deal would “create a much-needed choice for wireless in areas with expensive and limited plans from AT&T and Verizon, and for those that have been limited to one or no options for home broadband connectivity.” T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said customers of the two wireless carriers “will get more coverage and more capacity from our combined footprint.” He also said that it would force competitors to “keep up.” Earlier this month, T-Mobile and Verizon were in competing talks to buy parts of U.S. Cellular, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. However, the talks with Verizon weren’t expected to result in an agreement, the people said. This isn’t the first time T-Mobile has combined with smaller players in the industry. Earlier this month, T-Mobile completed the acquisition of Ka’ena Corporation, which owns direct-to-consumer prepaid wireless brands Mint Mobile and internationally-focused value brand Ultra Mobile. In 2020, T-Mobile U.S. completed its merger with Sprint to create the New T-Mobile, which they advertised as “a supercharged Un-carrier that will deliver a transformative 5G network.” In 2012, T-Mobile U.S. announced that it had acquired MetroPCS to create a “value leader.”