What do you do when you’re closest rival leap-frogs over you to become the largest wireless carrier in the US? You do everything you can to close that gap – legal obligations and guidelines be damned.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that AT&T is trying to do just that. Big Blue has made it known that they’re interested in snapping up Verizon Wireless’s former assets (spectrum, infrastructure, etc.) that were put on the auction block as part of Verizon’s Alltel acquisition deal. AT&T’s interest in these assets didn’t go over all that well with public interest group Public Knowledge, and has drawn the ire of both the Rural Cellular Association and the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies. These public interest groups are wary of the second-largest US wireless carrier acquiring assets from the No. 1 wireless carrier, potentially hurting the consumer in the end.
Regulatory bodies in the US had mandated that Verizon offload some $3 billion in rural wireless network assets before closing the Alltel merger deal. The divestiture stipulations were intended to preserve market competition in certain areas. Now that Verizon has officially taken Alltel under its wing and the assets are on the market, there are concerns that AT&T’s acquisition of Verizon’s rural assets would hurt market competition – which is the reason Verizon was required to divest those assets in the first place.
The US Department of Justice will evaluate the sale of Verizon’s former assets to ensure that the sale of these assets doesn’t hurt the local market or the consumers.
[Via: PhoneScoop]