Verizon Wireless’ announcement earlier this week that it was looking to sell/swap spectrum assets in the 1.7/2.1 GHz band with T-Mobile USA rippled through the regulatory process of its planned acquisition of spectrum licenses from a handful of other parties as the Federal Communications Commission has stopped its review clock on those deals. The FCC said the 14-day stoppage is designed to allow “interested parties” to comment on the proposed Verizon Wireless/T-Mobile USA deal.
“In light of this comment period, we are stopping for 14 days the Commission’s informal 180-day clock for the proposed Verizon Wireless – SpectrumCo and Verizon Wireless – Cox transactions in WT Docket No. 12-4, effective today and restarting on July 10, 2012, which will be Day 138,” the FCC noted in a statement.
The bone of contention for regulators is that 47 of the licenses Verizon Wireless intends to transfer to T-Mobile USA are licenses the carrier is looking to acquire in separate spectrum deals with SpectrumCo (Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks), Cox and Leap Wireless. Those deals were originally part of the merged license transfer review.
Verizon Wireless has already drawn the ire of regulators and opponents to its spectrum plans when earlier this year it announced it would be willing to sell off some of its A- and B-Block spectrum holdings if it were to gain approval for its AWS spectrum deals. Verizon Wireless is currently relying on its nationwide C-Block, 700 MHz spectrum licenses to support its rapidly expanding LTE service, with plans to bolster capacity using the AWS spectrum. Verizon Wireless picked up some AWS spectrum during the 2006 auction covering mainly portions of the eastern United States, and with its proposed spectrum deals is looking to add licenses across the remainder of the country.
The filings also shed more light on the proposed deal. According to filings, the deal will include the transfer of license covering 218 Cellular Market Areas, including intra-market swaps of equal amounts of spectrum in 76 CMAs; a net transfer in 125 CMAs of between 10 megahertz and 20 megahertz of spectrum to T-Mobile USA; and a net transfer in 17 CMAs of between 10 megahertz and 20 megahertz of spectrum to Verizon Wireless. Verizon Wireless notes that in those 17 markets it does not currently own any spectrum.
If approved, the deal would result in Verizon Wireless holding up to a maximum of 149 megahertz of spectrum in one of the 184 CMAs where it would be gaining new spectrum. T-Mobile USA would control a maximum of 90 megahertz of spectrum in markets where it would be gaining new spectrum.
There is also a financial component of the deal that will see T-Mobile USA pay an undisclosed sum to Verizon Wireless.
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