AT&T Inc. agreed to pay $2.5 billion for licenses that will allow it to expand wireless services or enable video broadcasts in much of its coverage area, the company announced yesterday.

The deal to acquire all the licenses held by Aloha Partners LP in the 700-megahertz range will give AT&T 12 MHz covering 196 million people in 281 markets. It will boost AT&T's presence in most of the top 100 markets in the United States and make it the largest owner of licenses in the 700 MHz to 800 MHz range of the spectrum, a claim Aloha held before agreeing to sell to AT&T.

The deal does not include any licenses covering Hawai'i. Aloha is based in Providence, R.I., and co-founded by Charles Town-send, who made a fortune selling wireless companies including Hawaiian Wireless, which was purchased by AT&T in 2001. Townsend bought taxicab frequencies to launch Hawaiian Wireless, according to an August 2006 Business Week article.

The nation's largest wireless carrier could acquire still more licenses in January when the Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to auction a large chunk of the spectrum used by analog television. When broadcasters must switch completely to digital television in 2009, they no longer will need most of the spectrum they have used.

AT&T could use the new licenses, all reserved for third-generation network services, either to expand wireless phone and data services or to add video content for mobile phones.