A Look at USCellular's Spectrum Ownership in Spektrum Metric's Tabular Views August 15, 2023 21:30

Previously we looked at US Cellular's Spectrum Ownership via Spektrum Metrics Map Views.  In this post, we will utilize Spektrum Metrics' Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool to evaluate how USCellular's low band spectrum will fit with the other national carriers.  In the County Analysis tab, we can see each carrier's total spectrum and the amount of low band spectrum.  In this view we used the autofilters to select only the counties where USCellular has spectrum.  This allows us to see how each of the national carriers spectrum assets compare in the counties where they can acquire spectrum from USCellular.  This view reveals that USCellular has very limited overall spectrum in the largest markets.  They have 20MHz of spectrum in one of the Boston CMA counties, and  12MHz in most of the St. Louis counties.

When we look at the frequency band information in the same analysis tab, we can see the counties where USCellular's low band spectrum includes cellular spectrum.  We can also see whether AT&T or Verizon is missing cellular spectrum in a county where USCellular's spectrum would fill a need.  Cellular spectrum is critical to both Verizon and AT&T because they have anchored their low band 5G coverage on that spectrum.  To evaluate the strategic plan for USCellular's cellular spectrum further, we are going to copy the data from this table into another Excel tab for further analysis.

Next we want to analyze which counties Verizon would like to acquire the USCellular cellular spectrum, which counties AT&T would like to acquire, and which counties they both would want, meaning neither carrier has cellular spectrum.  After determining which counties align with Verizon and those that align with AT&T, we will calculate the MHz-POPs that each carrier would likely  acquire.  When we bring the county data over, we leave the column that includes the 2021 population for each county along with the appropriate spectrum depth columns..  After identifying the counties where there is a clear desire from AT&T or Verizon for the cellular spectrum, we can calculate the MHz-POPs for each carriers desired acquisition by multiplying the population by the spectrum depth in the "New" columns.

In our cellular MHz-POPs analysis, below, subtotals for spectrum Verizon would acquire, AT&T would acquire, and the spectrum that could be acquired by either company are listed.