In separate announcements this morning, both T-Mobile USA and Leap Wireless, parent company of Cricket have announced the pending completion of an AWS spectrum exchange. The exchange breaks down with T-Mobile giving Leap spectrum holdings in several markets in Alabama, Illinois, Missouri and Minnesota, a 1:1 spectrum exchange in Philadelphia, Wilmington, DE and Atlantic City, NJ as well as several markets in Texas and New Mexico while T-Mobile will receive spectrum from Leap Wireless and the associated Savary Island venture in Alabama, Illinois, Missouri and Minnesota.
The swap represents the desires for both companies to take the best advantage of their AWS spectrum holdings in markets where they will be able to expand coverage and lay the groundwork for their respective transitions to LTE, as T-Mobile will roll out its future LTE network on its AWS frequency and Leap has signed wholesale agreements with Clearwire and Sprint to lease LTE access on their future networks that will also run on its own AWS spectrum holdings.
While T-Mobile is currently rebuilding after the failure of the AT&T merger and purchase late last year, Leap along with Cricket are also treading water while trying to develop its transition plan to LTE, as the carrier is now operating as a Sprint MVNO while shedding any real traces of its previous native coverage footprint in an attempt to drive new customers and similarly ridding itself of expensive real estate and relying almost exclusively on third-party dealers such as Best Buy for national sales.
