AT&T Inc. reportedly was the top bidder for the record-setting U.S. sale of spectrum.
Auction results from the Federal Communications Commission's sale of AWS-3 show that AT&T spent a total of $18.2 billion at Auction 97.
The total was higher than any other bidder, according to Reuters.
Verizon Communications Inc. and Dish Network Corp. partners also were top bidders. Verizon spending $10.4 billion, Dish partners collectively spent about $10 billion, and T-Mobile spent $1.8 billion, Reuters reports.
AT&T's new licenses gives the company a near nationwide contiguous 10x10 megahertz block of high-quality spectrum, covering 96 percent of the U.S. population.
"Growth in our customers' mobile data usage continues to explode, driven by mobile video traffic," John Stankey, AT&T's chief strategy officer, said in a released statement. "This spectrum investment will be critical to AT&T staying ahead of customer demand and facilitate the next generation of mobile video entertainment."
AT&T plans to work with network and handset suppliers to deploy the spectrum beginning in 2017 and 2018.
The Dallas company said that mobile traffic on its national wireless network increased 100,000 percent from January 2007 through December 2014.