Old issue haunts UScellular’s latest spectrum deals

Analysts expect the U.S. government ultimately will approve T-Mobile’s bid to buy UScellular’s customers and about 30 percent of its spectrum in a deal valued at $4.4 billion. But two attorneys are raising red flags about a small portion of the spectrum that’s changing hands, and they’re not going away quietly—even as T-Mobile and UScellular are telling the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that the attorneys are out of line and their concerns should be disregarded. Mark O’Connor and Sara Leibman have been fighting UScellular in court for years over the way UScellular acquired spectrum that is designed for small and minority-owned businesses through the FCC’s designated entity (DE) program. In UScellular’s case, the attorneys are relying on the False Claims Act, which was originally signed into law in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln.