Here s how much a 5G wireless network really costs lightreading.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lightreading.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile walked away with the vast majority of the C-band licenses up for grabs in the FCC s blockbuster midband spectrum auction.
As expected, Verizon spent the most: a whopping $45.5 billion for around 3,500 total licenses. According to the financial analysts at Evercore, Verizon acquired an average of 160MHz of spectrum across the entire US. The operator announced a $25 billion loan from JPMorgan Chase Bank to help pay for the licenses.
AT&T came in second by spending $23.4 billion for 1,621 licenses. According to Evercore, AT&T netted 80MHz in 95% of the country, with the remainder split between 60MHz and 100MHz. T-Mobile, meanwhile, spent $9.3 billion for 142 licenses, which cover around 68% of the US population.