T-Mobile US announced plans to issue $3 billion-worth of corporate bonds to help fund a $10.5 billion outlay on C-Band spectrum (3.7GHz to 4.2GHz) committed to in a recent auction.

In a stock market announcement, the operator said it would use $2 billion of the funds to pay for C-Band licences it won in the recent US sale and the remainder to refinance existing debt.

Its senior notes are set to mature in three tranches in 2026, 2029 and 2031.

In January it sold $3 billion-worth of in bonds, also to cover spectrum purchases and debt, which stood at $63.2 billion at end-Q4 2020.

During an analyst event last week, T-Mobile said it won 40MHz of C-Band spectrum in top markets, with its total outlay covering licences and compensation fees for companies currently using the frequencies.

Since the C-Band spectrum blocks purchased aren’t due to be cleared until end-2023, president of technology Neville Ray noted T-Mobile will focus on deployments in the 600MHz and 2.5GHz bands as part of a goal to complete its 5G network build by that point.

It then plans to use C-Band to supplement capacity in urban and suburban areas.