NEW YORK, Nov 12 (Reuters) - T-Mobile US Inc isconsidering buying spectrum from an unidentified private partyand would use some of the proceeds of a planned $2 billion shareoffering to finance such a deal, the company said in aregulatory filing on Tuesday.
On Monday, after the market close, the company announced anoffering of up to roughly 72 million shares and said it couldbuy wireless airwaves using proceeds from the sale. The sharesale could represent the fourth biggest secondary offering sofar this year, according to Reuters data.
T-Mobile, the No. 4 U.S. mobile operator, said in the filingthat it would not participate in a spectrum auction the U.S.government plans to hold in January, leaving investors insuspense over what spectrum it is looking to buy.
BTIG analsyt Walter Piecyk said T-Mobile could potentiallybe looking into buying spectrum from privately held AlohaPartners, which has spectrum in 12 of the top 50 U.S. marketsbut does not operate a wireless network.
It could also look to buy spectrum Verizon Wireless does not use, Piecyk said.
He estimated that a deal with Aloha could cost T-Mobile $650million while a Verizon deal could be as high as $3 billion.
Verizon declined to comment for the story and arepresentative for Aloha was not immediately available forcomment. Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen declinedto comment on whether or not his company was considering sellingspectrum to T-Mobile.
T-Mobile shares closed down 3 percent at $26.09 on the NewYork Stock Exchange on investor worries that the share offeringwould dilute the value of T-Mobile shares.
Deutsche Telekom, which owns 74 percent of T-Mobile, saidits stake would be reduced to 67 percent due to the offering.
Vodafone (VOD)
