Oct 18 (Reuters) - United States Cellular ( USM ) said

on 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.