Verizon sells AT&T $1.9 billion worth of valuable 700MHz spectrum

Give Verizon (VZ) some credit — it seems willing to spread the spectrum wealth around. Verizon on Friday announced a deal to sell rival AT&T (T) several spectrum licenses on the valuable 700MHz band for a total of $1.9 billion. In addition to paying almost $2 billion in cash, AT&T will also give Verizon some of its AWS spectrum band licenses in “certain western markets, including Los Angeles, Phoenix, Fresno and Portland, Oregon.” Quartz late last year estimated that Verizon had slightly more mobile data spectrum on hand than AT&T, although it noted that both companies could potentially be dwarfed by rival Sprint (S) if it completes its proposed acquisition of Clearwire.