Home › News ›

Verizon Scores AWS Spectrum for $3.6 Billion

Dec 2, 2011, 9:07 AM by Eric M. Zeman
updated Dec 2, 2011, 9:29 AM

Verizon Wireless today announced that it has agreed to purchase 122 Advanced Wireless Services spectrum licenses covering 259 million POPs for $3.6 billion from SpectrumCo. SpectrumCo is a joint venture between Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks. Comcast owns 63.6% of SpectrumCo and will receive $2.3 billion from the sale; Time Warner Cable owns 31.2% and will receive $1.1 billion; and Bright House Networks owns 5.3% and will receive $189 million. The companies have agreed to resell Verizon's products and services to their own customers rather than create and run their own wireless network. They also set up an innovation joint venture to explore how best to integrate wireless and wireline services in the future. AWS spectrum lays in the 1700MHz band. Verizon Wireless's CDMA network runs on the 850MHz and 1900MHz PCS bands, and its LTE network operates on 700MHz spectrum. Verizon has not said what it intends to do with this new spectrum, other than to offer "even better 4G LTE products and services" to Americans. Verizon didn't say when it expects the deal to close, and it has to pass regulatory approval, first.

Related

Samsung Refreshes Galaxy S Series with S Pen, New Cameras

Feb 9, 2022
Samsung today announced its lineup of flagship phones for 2022: the Galaxy S22 series. The top-end S22 Ultra sees the biggest changes as it essentially absorbs Samsung's Note series with an integrated S Pen stylus and a more Note-like shape and design, instead of the Contour Cut design of the other models.

iPhone 14 Plus Offers a Big Screen For Less

Sep 7, 2022
Apple has revealed the iPhone 14 series, with new features, improved specs, and new size options. In place of a Mini option, the iPhone 14 will come in the same 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch screen size options as the Pro models.

Nokia Brings Affordable 5G to T-Mobile

Nov 9, 2021
HMD Global had announced the Nokia X100, a 5G phone starting at $249, exclusively for T-Mobile and Metro. The phone includes a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, Nokia OZO Audio, and Zeiss camera optics.

OSOM Teases Privacy-Focused Phone and Privacy Cable

Mar 10, 2022
Startup OSOM has started teasing its first phone, the OV1. The phone will generally be privacy-focused and details released so far include very high-end materials and potentially high-end specs.

AT&T Spins Off Media Biz

May 17, 2021
AT&T is shedding its WarnerMedia division, which includes HBO, CNN, DC Comics, Warner Brothers, TBS, TNT, and Cartoon Network. In a complex deal, WarnerMedia will leave AT&T and merge with Discovery, Inc., to form a new media company.

more news about:

Comments

This forum is closed.

This forum is closed.

Rich Brome

Dec 2, 2011, 9:52 AM

Wow

This is a pretty big deal. It will give Verizon a huge, huge competitive advantage in myriad ways. They will be able to do things with 4G that other carriers can only dream of. They will also have complete flexibility to roll out VoLTE and eventually transition away from CDMA at absolutely whatever pace they like.

Versed

Of course this is perfectly OK for VZW to do this, don't see charts, maps and other diagrams on just how much spectrum VZW owns and uses or doesn't use. Such treatment is only reserved for AT&T. Everyone else gets a free pass on unused or spectrum h...
(continues)

...

Jayshmay

Can you give some examples of what Verizon will be able to do with LTE that other carriers won't?

...

WiWavelength

Once the AT&T-T-Mobile merger is finally kaput, T-Mobile was likely to make a play for this nearly nationwide collection of AWS 2100+1700 MHz licenses from SpectrumCo. So, this was a preemptive strike by VZW.

AJ

...

Page 1 of 1