AT&T buys Aloha's 700MHz

Tired of waiting for the auction, AT&T buys Aloha's spectrum.

From The Street:

"AT&T got a jump on next year's radio wave auction with a $2.5 billion bid for Aloha Partners' 700-megahertz spectrum licenses. In the deal, AT&T would take ownership of former UHF channels 54 and 59, the so-called C block of wireless spectrum Aloha had acquired in the past few years. Aloha owned the largest swath of licenses covering about 80% of the population in the top 100 cities.

From the press release:

"Customer demand for mobile services, including voice, data and video, is continually increasing," said Forrest Miller, group president-corporate strategy and development. "Aloha's spectrum will enable AT&T to efficiently meet this growing demand and help our customers stay connected to their worlds."

From Unstrung:

"AT&T's experience on deploying UMTS at 850 MHz makes 700 MHz a great fit with its existing network," says Gabriel Brown. "In particular, the carrier should be able to source attractive 3G handsets that work at both frequencies."

Brown says the price AT&T has paid for this spectrum is "full but fair." He calculates that, at a price of $2.5 billion for 12 MHz of spectrum covering 196 million people, AT&T has paid roughly $1 per MHz per head."