FCC approval for AT&T’s acquisition of rural licenses from Verizon

27th June, 2010 by adina
Tags: , , ,

The FCC has approved AT&T’s buyout of some wireless spectrum from Verizon for a total value of $2.4 billion. All five commissioners have voted in favor of this decision. The FCC requires that Verizon sells 79 of the frequencies it holds after the acquisition of Alltel. The commissioners have stated that this buyout do not cause a competitive risk. They also motivated that public interest benefits require the taking over of the discarded frequencies by AT&T.

In order to complete this deal, AT&T needs to make certain guarantees that include honoring earlier roaming deals of Verizon where possible as well as making new ones for its GSM-based network. As part of this swap, a number of customers that was not specified will belong now to AT&T.

AT&T’s coverage could be improved with the help of the new obtained space, mainly in the rural areas of the United States. Part of the new acquired wireless spaces are focused on the southwest and include New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and Utah. Parts of the east and north are also included and include Michigan, Minnesota, Dakota, Wyoming and Virginia. The carrier intends to provide 3G service to the newly added areas but expects them to buy the iPhone and the other AT&T’s mobile devices of its catalog.


  • Share

 

Readers Comments