T-Mobile tees up 800 MHz for sale to Grain, with upshots for utilities

It’s been a long time coming, but T-Mobile has found a buyer for the 800 MHz spectrum it inherited from Sprint. Private equity firm Grain Management plans to buy the spectrum and use it to serve the utilities industry, which has been clamoring for more spectrum to meet their critical infrastructure needs. As part of the transaction, T-Mobile will receive a combination of cash and all of Grain’s 600 MHz spectrum licenses, which T-Mobile already has been using under a loan agreement. In partnership with Black & Veatch, Grain will market the 800 MHz spectrum portfolio to utilities, rural and regional operators and other enterprises. In their public interest statement, the companies put forth how the best use of this spectrum is to serve utilities, and Grain already has made “significant headway” in developing a nationwide pipeline of utilities interested in acquiring or using the spectrum, with several utilities signing letters of intent.