T-Mobile to get seven-year 3G roaming deal, 128 markets of AWS spectrum from AT&T

Deutsche Telekom now is detailing the consolation prize it’s getting from AT&T in the aftermath of its failed acquisition of T-Mobile — and in looking through the details, calling it a “consolation prize” really doesn’t do it justice. The German telecommunications giant will be receiving a cash payment of $3 billion, which we now know will be going directly toward paying off DT’s debt — it seems that T-Mobile USA itself won’t see a dime of it — but the carrier will be taking delivery of licenses for some 128 market areas of AWS spectrum, including 12 of the top 20 markets. That’s a pretty big deal, and will probably force AT&T to rely more heavily on its 700MHz holdings for LTE deployments in some areas.

Though there’s no sign that DT now suddenly wants to keep T-Mobile USA in its holdings over the long term, it seems like this is a totally acceptable outcome for the carrier. Realistically, it might be exactly what it needed to get it over the hump, put it on the path to growing its subscriber base again, and into an LTE agreement of some sort. We’ll see.