AT&T to lose hundreds of 5G millimeter wave spectrum licenses as part of FCC/FiberTower settlement

The Federal Communications Commission announced a settlement with AT&T’s FiberTower that involves the company returning hundreds of millimeter wave spectrum licenses to the agency. The settlement essentially means AT&T won’t get access to those spectrum licenses, and it paves the way for the agency to reauction those licenses at some point in the future.  Specifically, as part of the agreement, FiberTower is abandoning all of its 24 GHz spectrum licenses (around 121 total) and roughly the same number of 39 GHz spectrum licenses. Thus, those abandoned licenses will revert back to FCC ownership. So, due to its agreement to purchase FiberTower, AT&T will only get around 479 of FiberTower’s 39 GHz spectrum licenses and none of the company’s 24 GHz licenses.