AT&T buys wireless spectrum from Qualcomm for $1.92B

Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) is getting out of the wireless TV business and AT&T (NYSE: T) is stepping in its place in a deal to expand its capacity to offer high-speed wireless “4G” broadband services.

The companies said early Monday that AT&T would pay $1.92 billion to the chip maker for spectrum rights that Qualcomm had used for Flo TV.

The chip maker is shutting down the service in March.

Sprint, Verizon and other providers are already providing 4G services or moving to implement them.

“AT&T announced today that as part of its longer-term 4G network plan, it intends to deploy this spectrum as supplemental downlink, using carrier aggregation technology,” AT&T said in a statement. “This technology is designed to deliver substantial capacity gains by enabling unpaired spectrum to be used in conjunction with paired spectrum.”

The spectrum covers some 300 million people and includes many major metropolitan markets.

For more details, read here.

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