Regional wireless carrier USCellular is looking at potential suitors. Don’t count AT&T as one of them.
AT&T Chief Financial Officer Pascal Desroches was asked about the company’s appetite for acquiring USCellular, and he was clear with his response.
“We really like our wireless business and I don’t think that particular asset would change anything demonstrable for our business we already have a nationwide footprint, and we feel really good about the assets,” Descroches said during an investor conference hosted by Bank of America.
The comments stand in contrast with T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert, who last week on another investor conference hinted that he might be interested.
“Maybe, but I like our Plan A a lot,” Sievert said.
The conflicting responses highlight their different positions in terms of their respective ability to cover the rural parts of the country. While T-Mobile has had a huge swaths of spectrum its put to use in upgrading its 5G network, it lacks a lot of capacity in rural territories. But last month, AT&T said it had gotten full access to C-Band spectrum, which gives it a lot of capacity across most of the country, especially in middle America.
Those positions show how much more T-Mobile stands to benefit from buying USCellular than AT&T.
A spokesman for USCellular wasn’t immediately available for comment.