San Antonio, Texas- based telecommunication services provider AT&T Inc. (T) said Tuesday that its board of directors approved an agreement to buy spectrum licenses from Aloha Partners, L.P., a Delaware limited partnership, for about $2.5 billion in cash. The company anticipates closing the deal within six to nine months, subject to necessary government approvals.AT&T said the acquiring licenses covers 196 million people in the 700 MHz frequency band. Aloha Partners LP holds licenses for UHF channels 54 and 59 covering 196 million people in 281 markets.The company noted that its spectrum position will be enhanced by adding 12 MHz of spectrum from the acquisition. The spectrum covers many major metropolitan areas, including 72 of the top 100 and all of the top 10 markets in the U.S.Forrest Miller, group president-corporate strategy and development, commented, Customer demand for mobile services, including voice, data and video, is continually increasing. Aloha's spectrum will enable AT&T to efficiently meet this growing demand and help our customers stay connected to their worlds. In early October, AT&T agreed to acquire Interwise, a privately held provider of voice, Web and video conferencing services, through one of its subsidiaries for about $121 million in cash. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter.The Wall Street Journal in late September reported, citing people familiar with the matter that AT&T is looking for a wireless acquisition in India, one of the world's fastest growing wireless markets. In recent year, the company had retreated from overseas acquisitions in order to focus on acquisitions in the U.S. But, WSJ noted that AT&T's new CEO, Randall Stephenson, is now reversing course and intends to acquire companies abroad, as he sees growth opportunities outside the U.S., largely in emerging markets. Reports also suggested that AT&T is focusing resources on China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to help ship data and phone traffic for U.S. multinational companies. Among others in the industry, German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG's (DT) unit T-Mobile USA, Inc. announced a definitive deal in mid September to acquire SunCom Wireless Holdings, Inc. (TPC) for about $2.4 billion in cash and assumed debt.In a separate statement on Tuesday, AT&T announced several expansions to its robust AT&T U-verse TV channel lineup, including new High Definition, or HD, networks and Filipino, South Asian and Vietnamese programming options. The company noted that its U-verse TV will add History Channel HD and Lifetime Movie Network HD to its HD lineup, beginning October15. AT&T has also expanded its in-language and international offerings with several new U-verse TV subscription options. The company said the new international networks will be available on U-verse TV starting October 23.AT&T also announced the promotion of Rachel Kutz to executive director of Wireless Network Operations for the Georgia region. In her new role, Kutz's duties include the expansion of network coverage and capacity, enhancements to the third-generation wireless broadband network, and the day-to-day maintenance and operation of the Georgia wireless network.Further, AT&T said it entered into a new three-year contract with First State Bank & Trust to provide network services. Under the contract terms, AT&T will serve as the primary network and data services provider to the bank, based in Kansas, with eight locations across the state.Also, the company announced an extension and expansion of its networking services agreement with Tokyo Electron America, the North American subsidiary of Tokyo Electron. Under the three-year deal, AT&T will serve as the primary network and data services provider to Tokyo Electron America.On October 5, AT&T said it signed a new Enterprise Hosting Services contract with online real estate community Zillow.com. As per the deal, AT&T will serve as the primary network provider to Zillow.com and will support the real estate company's growing activity and data needs with AT&T Enterprise Hosting Services. AT&T will also provide additional bandwidth and services.Earlier, in September, the company entered into a five-year contract with Motivational Systems Inc. to offer voice and data services. In February, General Motors Corp. (GM) awarded AT&T a five-year contract worth $1 billion to manage its global data network. In a separate statement, Neat Wireless LLC, a minority-owned operator of PCS Wireless telecommunications, said Tuesday that it filed a complaint against AT&T's unit AT&T Mobility, formerly Cingular Wireless, with the FCC and DOJ.In its complaint, filed in June and September 2007, Neat Wireless alleges that AT&T Mobility engaged in illegal conduct and behavior that resulted in Neat Wireless failure to compete in markets it acquired from AT&T Mobility in Northeastern Arkansas that facilitated AT&T Mobility's merger with AWS in October 2004. According to Neat Wireless, AT&T Mobility's these actions forced Neat Wireless to sell back all of the recently acquired subscribers from AT&T Mobility in Northeastern Arkansas to AT&T Mobility at distressed prices. Neat Wireless pointed out that the approvals by FCC and DOJ for the merger of AT&T Mobility with AWS was subject to the divestiture of certain properties, including those acquired by Neat Wireless. As AT&T Mobility regained back all the subscribers after one year of the sale, its actions are believed to a violation of public policy, good business practices, the intent of Congress, and the antitrust provisions of the laws of the U.S., Neat Wireless said. It also violates the Final Order of the FCC allowing the merger of AT&T Mobility and AWS, the company added.T is currently trading at $42.09, up $0.16 or 0.38%, on a volume of 2 million shares. In the past 52 weeks, shares have traded in a range of $31.75-$42.97.
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June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.