AT&T and Verizon Communications are opening their wallets and T-Mobile could be the beneficiary, says a recent report from Fool.com, the communications tech blog run by The Motley Fool. T-Mobile’s big bet was investing in nationwide wireless towers to carry their high speed 4G connections.

Of course, At&T and Verizon have their own, and in fact much more than T-Mobile. But that’s where T-Mobile played the game. By building towers in shallow spots where Verizon and AT&T were lacking…(which was less airspace anyway), T-Mobile set itself up to be a major boon to whichever company might acquire it.

As Motley reports,

The FCC is is opening up several blocks of wireless spectrum called AWS-3, or  advanced wireless services, and it could be one of the biggest auctions since 2008. AWS can be used for voice, text, and data which is often used for carriers’ 4G and 4G LTE connections.

The FCC has set the price of the blocks at about $10.6 billion, and T-Mobile is selling senior notes to raise money for the auction. T-Mobile, as well as smaller regional carriers, have a strong interest in this spectrum auction because the blocks of wireless waves are divided up in such a way that carriers will be able to buy up airwaves in regions that they need it most, as opposed to just a couple of large spectrum blocks.

Adding more AWS spectrum can have huge benefits. Verizon’s past purchases of AWS has enabled the carrier to boost its LTE speeds, and add additional LTE connections.

The AWS-3 spectrum is used by the Department of Defense and 17 different government agencies, according to Fierce Wireless. These agencies are either leaving the spectrum, or sharing it with carriers, opening up the potential for huge logistical problems. The balancing act between the government and carriers may slow some deployment of the spectrum.

Most civilians don’t realize that wireless spectrum isn’t unlimited, and there’s actually a hard amount on what can be used in the United States, essentially based on the laws of nature — since there are only so many radio wavelengths. In the case of T-Mobile, they couldn’t be happier about that, to the tune of billions.

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