Wireless competitors want Verizon deal review

Mar 08, 2012 3:39 am
Marguerite Reardon at CNet reports that T-Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel want the Federal Communications Commission to suspend its review of Verizon Wireless's $3.6 billion purchase of wireless spectrum from cable operators. In December, Verizon Wireless bought the spectrum from Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, and Cox Communications, 20MHz of unused AWS wireless spectrum that Verizon wants to supplement its new 4G LTE service. 4G LTE is a faster, more efficient platform for mobile smartphones, and there is hope to solve the overcrowding of 3G as consumers flock to 4G LTE. First though, the competing wireless operators, "want Verizon to disclose more information about the marketing deals it struck with [those] cable operators.... The companies say the FCC should suspend its 180-day review of the deal until that information is made public.... They ask Verizon Wireless to provide unredacted versions of its filings to the agency that detail its commercial agreements with the cable operators," Reardon wrote. Free Press is also organizing an online petition against the deal. Read the full story in CNet.