Ted Cruz Demands Deadlines on Grain’s $2.9B T-Mobile Spectrum Sale
TMUS•Senator Ted Cruz flagged Grain Management’s $2.9B purchase of T-Mobile’s 800MHz licenses and urged the FCC to impose enforceable deployment deadlines after Grain requested a 12-year build-out extension. He warned that idle spectrum could undermine US wireless capacity as record 132 trillion megabytes of data were used in 2024.
1. Sale Details and Financial Terms
T-Mobile agreed last year to sell its portfolio of 800MHz spectrum licenses to Grain Management for $2.9 billion in cash in exchange for all of Grain’s 600MHz spectrum licenses. The transaction transfers key low-band spectrum rights that T-Mobile originally acquired in 2020.
2. Senator Cruz’s Regulatory Concerns
Senator Ted Cruz, chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, questioned Grain’s request for a 12-year build-out extension in a letter to the FCC. He urged specific, enforceable deployment requirements to prevent the spectrum from remaining idle and to protect economic and national security interests.
3. Impact on T-Mobile’s Network and Spectrum Deployment
Cruz highlighted that the 800MHz spectrum is ready for immediate large-scale deployment as US wireless data usage surged by 32% from 100 trillion to 132 trillion megabytes in 2024. Delayed deployment could constrain T-Mobile’s network capacity growth and hinder its ability to meet rising consumer demand.
