AT&T to buy Verizon spectrum for $1.9 billion

1980s Dodge Ram Van Verizon
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Grant Gross – AT&T will buy mobile spectrum in the 700MHz band from Verizon Communications for US$1.9 billion.

In April, Verizon pledged to sell off two 12MHz blocks of mobile spectrum in the 700MHz band, including the B block, if U.S. regulators approved its purchase of spectrum from a group of cable providers. more> http://tinyurl.com/bchy4bj

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Isis finally launches mobile payments service in two cities

Salt Lake City – Salt Lake Temple
(Photo credit: Kwong Yee Cheng)

Reuters – Isis, formed by Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc and T-Mobile USA, is a mobile wallet service that allows consumers to make payments by waving their phone at a check-out terminal, instead of using a plastic card.

Starting on Monday (Oct 22) the company said the service was available in Austin, Texas, and Salt Lake City, Utah, with support for the service on nine different handset models.

The service will work on payment cards from American Express, Capital One as well as an Isis cash card. more> http://tinyurl.com/8pgbk32

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FCC wants to know if Verizon is warehousing spectrum

By Kevin Fitchard – The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is curious why Verizon Wireless bought a bunch of 4G spectrum back in 2008 but now plans to sell it.

Carriers like T-Mobile and Sprint, along with a slew of consumer advocacy and telecom industry groups, have criticized the deal, claiming Verizon is merely trying to lock up the most valuable 4G airwaves.

Verizon is in a tricky situation here. Those A and B block licenses don’t fit well into its LTE plans for multiple reasons: the goofy configuration of the 700 MHz band, the fact that they don’t form a nationwide footprint and interference concerns in A block. When Verizon bid on them and won them in 2008, it probably wanted them as insurance – or to keep them out of AT&T’s hands. It was hoping something better would come along, and it did — in the form of nice big gift-wrapped package of clean nationwide airwaves delivered by its new cable buddies. more> http://is.gd/fjiGqx

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• FCC Wants to Know More About Verizon’s Spectrum Offer (phonescoop.com)
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• T-Mobile, Sprint and Others Form Coalition to Oppose Verizon (pcadvisor.co.uk)
• Carriers, policy groups join up to (sort of) stop Verizon-cable deal (gigaom.com)
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CTIA 2012: A non-stop spectrum beg-a-thon

CTIA – The Wireless Association
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Brad Reed – This year’s CTIA wireless tradeshow in New Orleans seemed less like an industry gathering at times and more like an infomercial dedicated to forcing the government’s hand to free up more spectrum. Start with CTIA President and CEO Steve Largent, who dedicated the vast majority of his introductory keynote address to discussing the challenges carriers will face if they don’t get fresh spectrum to use within the next few years.

“We simply need more spectrum,” he said. “Getting more spectrum is the No.1 goal of CTIA.”

Later that day, Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead took up the baton and similarly lobbied for the government to open up new airwaves for mobile data services.

T-Mobile CEO Philipp Humm, meanwhile, said “the need for spectrum is urgent since it takes a while for new spectrum to be auctioned off and put to use.” more> http://tinyurl.com/79xbgp2

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Rivals seek delay of Verizon cable deal review

1980s Dodge Ram Van Verizon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Jasmin Melvin – Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N), DirecTV (DTV.O) and others asked U.S. communications regulators on Tuesday to suspend their 180-day clock for reviewing proposed multi-billion dollar airwaves deals between Verizon Wireless and several cable operators.

The Federal Communications Commission is on the 96th day of its review of Verizon Wireless’s plan to buy about $3.9 billion worth of wireless airwaves from cable companies including Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O) and Time Warner Cable Inc (TWC.N).

The cable operators would be allowed to resell Verizon’s mobile service as part of the deals. Verizon Wireless is a venture of Verizon Communications (VZ.N) and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L).

Verizon rivals Sprint, Deutsche Telekom AG‘s (DTEGn.DE) T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS Communications (PCS.N), have all complained to the FCC about the bigger company’s cable deal on concerns that it would give too much market power to the already dominant company. more> http://is.gd/n1dCHe

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