Verizon outbids AT&T in quest for 5G glory
Verizon agrees to pay $3.1 billion for little-known Straight Path, or nearly twice the price AT&T originally agreed to.
- SABEW Best in Business 2011 Award for Breaking News Coverage, Eddie Award in 2020 for 5G coverage, runner-up National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award for culture analysis.
Verizon wants to get 5G into homes soon.
Verizon really, really wants to get its 5G ambitions going.
The nation's largest wireless carrier said Thursday it would buy Straight Path Communications, snatching the little-known company away from AT&T, which previously agreed to acquire it. Verizon said it would pay $184 a share, or $3.1 billion. That's nearly double the $1.6 billion AT&T offered. Verizon will also cover a $38 million breakup fee that Straight Path owes to AT&T for ditching that deal.
Why the obsession over a company few people have heard of? Straight Path holds a valuable swath of nationwide spectrum that runs at a high frequency -- the perfect kind of spectrum to power a superfast 5G wireless network.
The deal has the potential to kickstart Verizon's 5G ambitions, which are already rolling along through trials of 5G as a home broadband replacement service. The hype and excitement over 5G, which promises faster, more responsive networks, have drawn every carrier to stake a claim in the technology.
T-Mobile, for instance, has vowed to build a nationwide 5G network before anyone else. On Wednesday, Sprint committed to offering 5G services and devices by 2019. AT&T, like Verizon, is focused on 5G as a broadband service and a way to deliver DirecTV, at least initially.
An AT&T spokesman declined to comment on the deal.
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