AT&T to acquire Nextel Mexico for $1.88 billion, building out ‘North American Mobile Service’

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AT&T is getting another Nextel brand under its name.

AT&T announced on Monday it’s acquiring Nextel Mexico for $1.88 billion, marking the secondĀ carrier in the region it’s purchased this month.

AT&T is acquiring Nextel Mexico’s spectrum licenses, network assets, retail stores and approximately 3 million subscribers. The network covers 76 million people, giving AT&T lots of room to grow in Mexico.Ā 

The acquisition of Nextel Mexico is part of AT&T’s plan to cover the whole continent, it said on Monday.

“The acquisition of Nextel Mexico will support AT&Tā€™s plans to bring greater competition and faster mobile Internet speeds to the Mexican wireless market,” the carrier wrote in a prepared statement. “AT&T plans to create the first-ever North American Mobile Service area covering over 400 million consumers and businesses in Mexico and the United States, and Nextel Mexicoā€™s subscribers will be included.”

Nextel Mexico has a 3G network that runs on the same HSPA technology as AT&T stateside, along with LTE connectivity in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey.

Based on its recent experience with Mexicoā€™s regulatory review and approval process, AT&T expects the transaction to close in mid- 2015. Since Nextel Mexico filed for bankruptcy last year, AT&T will have to go through the Mexican bankruptcy court.

AT&T closed its $2.5B deal for IusacellĀ in January, now makingĀ it the third largest mobile carrier in Mexico. WithĀ Nextel Mexicoā€™s 3 million subscribers, AT&T will have roughlyĀ 12 million customers in Mexico.

Source: AT&T