T-Mobile US announced plans on Monday to sell 66.15 million common shares, so giving it “financial flexibility” to purchase additional spectrum.

At the end of yesterday’s trading, Reuters calculated the stock sale could raise nearly $2 billion at current market prices.

Deutsche Telekom, which owns 74 per cent of T-Mobile US, would see its stake diluted to 67 per cent after the stock sale. The news agency said the German incumbent was not selling any of its T-Mobile US shares.

Jonathan Chaplin, a New Street analyst, told Reuters the timing of the offering was surprising. He had expected T-Mobile to wait nearer the time until the US government auctioned off spectrum licences owned by broadcasters, scheduled for January 2014.

Spectrum owned by bankrupt LightSquared, however, is expected to be sold off in a December auction. Dish, a satellite TV provider, is the only company so far to show a public interest in those assets.

In June, T-Mobile US announced it had signed an agreement to purchase 10MHz of AWS spectrum from regional operator US Cellular for $308 million in cash.

John Legere, T-Mobile US CEO, said “spectrum is gold” at the time of the US Cellular deal.