Regional US operator Shentel and T-Mobile US have agreed to initiate a new appraisal process as they seek to establish an agreeable valuation ahead of T-Mobile’s planned takeover of the wireless unit. On 3 November the parties ‘aligned in principle to resolve such disputed items’. For the purpose of the exercise, the appraisers will assume the T-Mobile/Sprint merger did not occur, and that Shentel remains an affiliate of Sprint. The appraisers expect to complete their valuation on or about 20 January 2021 and the transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021, subject to receipt of customary regulatory approvals.
As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, on 26 August – via Sprint Corporation – T-Mobile exercised a November 1999 option held by Sprint PCS to acquire Shentel’s wireless communications assets. (Note: if T-Mobile did not exercise the purchase option, Shentel would have had a 60-day period to purchase the legacy T-Mobile network and subscribers in its area. Failing that, T-Mobile would have been obliged to decommission the legacy network.)
Shentel, which operates in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, and portions of Kentucky and Ohio, has been a Sprint affiliate since 1995. The cellco ended June 2020 with 1.024 million mobile subscribers, and also presides over fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and DOCSIS 3.1 broadband networks.