Verizon plans spectrum sale to win approval for cable deal

From CNET News.com: Verizon Wireless is planning to auction off some of its wireless spectrum in the hopes of winning favor with regulators to buy a chunk of spectrum from cable operators.

Verizon has been facing opposition from several smaller wireless carriers for a deal it proposed last year to buy unused spectrum from a group of cable operators that includes Comcast and Time Warner Cable.

Verizon said in a statement Wednesday that if it's given approval to buy the cable operators' spectrum, it will sell Megahertz of its own spectrum in the A and B block of 700 MHz frequency band. The Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice are currently evaluating the sale of the cable spectrum to Verizon.

Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA, and MetroPCS are among the smaller carriers that have complained to the FCC about Verizon's deal with Spectrum Co., the consortium of cable companies that originally bought the AWS spectrum Verizon is proposing to buy. These companies argue that Verizon already owns large swaths of wireless spectrum and therefore acquiring more from the cable operators would shut smaller players out of acquiring much needed wireless spectrum.

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