FCC Approves Verizon's $3.9 Billion Spectrum Purchase

The executives at Verizon are likely jumping for joy today, as the FCC has approved the company's planned spectrum acquisition. Verizon will be purchasing spectrum licenses from SprectrumCo, which is a joint venture between a number of big cable companies, including Comcast and Time Warner. It's paying a lot of money for access to that AWS spectrum as well, as the total price comes in at a whopping $3.9 billion.

Naturally, Verizon plans to use this freshly-acquired spectrum to expand its 4G services, but now that it has acquired the spectrum it wanted, it will be licensing out its lower A and B block spectrum to other companies. One of the companies that will licensing spectrum from Verizon is T-Mobile, which plans a roll out of 4G LTE for early 2013. In a statement, it was pretty easy to tell that Verizon president and CEO Dan Mead was eager to begin utilizing this new spectrum. "This purchase represents a milestone in the industry and we appreciate the FCC's diligent work to review and approve the transaction," he said. "We will work aggressively to ensure that we put this previously unused spectrum to use quickly to benefit customers."

We've known about Verizon's plan to buy up this unused spectrum since December, when it first noted it was interested in striking the deal. Given the number of companies involved the deal and the amount of money changing hands, the FCC had to become involved to make sure everything checked out. The FCC obviously doesn't have the problem with the deal, announcing that Verizon has the green light to go ahead with the purchase today.

So, not only does this deal help Verizon greatly, but it will also help out other carriers and their customers. Verizon's 4G LTE network already covers 75% of the United States, but with this new sale, Verizon will be able to give that a boost. Here's hoping that Verizon begins its roll out as quickly as Mead's comments suggest. Stay tuned, folks.

[via Android Community]