United States Cellular said Friday it has agreed to sell some of its spectrum licenses to Verizon in a $1 billion deal.

U.S. Cellular's shares jumped 3.9% in trading before the bell.

The company will sell portion of its spectrum licenses used for mobile phone signals and high-speed data services to Verizon.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

The transaction is part of U.S. Cellular's strategy to monetize its spectrum assets and will help Verizon expand its network capacity and coverage.

Additionally, U.S. Cellular said it has agreed to sell part of its spectrum licenses to two other mobile network operators, but did not disclose the details.

KEY QUOTES

"We are pleased that significant value for a portion of the remaining licenses will be realized," U.S. Cellular CEO Laurent Therivel said.

"We are continuing the process to opportunistically monetize the remaining spectrum assets not included in today's announcement."

CONTEXT

In May, U.S. Cellular entered into an agreement with T-Mobile to sell almost all of its wireless operations including customers, stores and 30% of its spectrum assets in a deal valued at $4.4 billion.