T-Mobile spends over $304 million to improve its mid-band 5G coverage

We told you the other day that the FCC's Auction 108 of 2.5GHz mid-band spectrum was over. And Fierce Wireless today shared the breakdown of the winning bids. After 73 rounds, the auction took in $428 million, well short of the tens of billions of dollars that the C-band auctions (also for mid-band airwaves) collected. One reason for that was the expected dominance of T-Mobile, which is exactly what happened with the auction.

T-Mobile led the way with $304,325,290 of winning bids for 7,156 licenses in 2,724 counties. Overall, 7,872 licenses were sold, and 145 licenses were unsold. 82 bidders participated in the auction which was seen as a way for the nation's second-largest carrier to plug the gaps in its existing 2.5GHz mid-band coverage. Verizon, using the name Cellco partnership, spent $1,515,300 for 12 licenses in 9 counties.

Also bidding in the auction was Dish (using the name Carbonate Wireless, and AT&T. Both wireless providers ended up getting shutout in the auction. Mid-band spectrum has become an important tool for wireless firms looking to give customers access to 5G download data speeds that are faster than the 4G LTE-like speeds delivered with low-band 5G. And firms pushing their 1Gbps download speeds on mmWave (like Verizon and AT&T) now realize that the short distances that these signals travel make them nearly impossible for subscribers to find.

But mid-band spectrum travels farther than mmWave with 5G download data speeds up to 10 times faster than those found with low-band 5G signals. This is why both Verizon and AT&T combined to bid over $68 billion during last year's C-band auction.

Fierce Wireless also made an interesting point about T-Mobile's 2.5GHz spectrum. Getting its hands on these airwaves was the reason why the carrier spent $26 billion to buy Sprint more than two years ago. Sprint had a huge amount of 2.5GHz spectrum that T-Mobile wanted. But Fierce Wireless points out that while T-Mobile often "bragged" about the amount of 2.5GHz spectrum it had at its disposal, it leases most of it from educational institutions that actually are the owners of the airwaves.

A third-party firm called WCO Spectrum has reportedly been trying to work out deals to purchase the spectrum from the aforementioned legal institutions. The report states that T-Mobile has been using the legal brain power at its disposal to come up with some kind of legal maneuver that would prevent the schools that own the 2.5GHz spectrum from selling to WCO.

Other bidders tried to get the FCC to force T-Mobile to reveal some information pertaining to the leases it holds on some of these airwaves as AT&T and Verizon considered this inside knowledge that T-Mobile could use to be a more informed bidder during the auction. But the FCC refused to make T-Mobile release this data which was another reason for the paltry amount of bids that was collected.

Commenting on the auction, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said, "The 2.5 GHz band auction can help deliver on the promise of 5G services and ensure that it reaches as many people as possible. The 2.5 GHz band spectrum provides an opportunity to fill in some of the critical 5G gaps in rural America."

T-Mobile's accounting team is no doubt very busy. Final payments for the winning bids must be received before 6 pm ET on September 30. To avoid a late fee or default (either of which might be considered embarrassing), the payment must be made by wire transfer and received in the Commission’s account at the U.S. Treasury before the deadline expires.

Partially due to its use of the 2.5GHz mid-band spectrum, T-Mobile is currently considered the nation's 5G King. However, it is still too early in the game for winners and losers to be declared.