The Federal Communications Commission or FCC Tuesday approved two mergers of wireless companies, a $28.1 billion deal by Verizon Wireless to acquire Alltel Corp. and a $14.5 billion transaction by Sprint Nextel Corp.(S) to combine its WiMax business with Clearwire Corp. (CLWR), albeit with conditions. Further, the regulator approved rules that would allow use of vacant television airwaves for unlicensed use.
The licenses, spectrum leasing agreements, and authorizations to be transferred in the deal between Verizon Wireless and Alltel include Cellular licenses, broadband PCS licenses, Local Multipoint Distribution Service licenses, Local Television Transmission Service licenses, Common Carrier Fixed Point-to-Point Microwave licenses as well as international and domestic section 214 authorizations.
The plan of merger between the two companies was revealed in June when Verizon Wireless said it agreed to acquire Alltel Corp. from TPG Capital and Goldman Sachs's GS Capital Partners for $28.1 billion, which includes $22.1 billion estimated debt of Alltel. Excluding debt, the consideration would have been about $5.9 billion.
Alltel serves more than 13 million customers in markets in 34 states, including 57 primarily rural markets that Verizon Wireless does not serve. The transaction puts the Alltel markets and customers on a path to advanced 4th generation services as Verizon Wireless has begun to deploy the Long-Term Evolution or LTE technology on a trial basis this year. If the deal comes through, Verizon will become the No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier by subscribers.
Approving the deal between Alltel and Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and Vodafone Group PLC VOD, VOD.L), the regulator asked one of the two companies to divest the licenses and related operational and network assets in five markets where a potential for competitive harm was found. The commission has also conditioned the approval on Verizon Wireless' voluntary divestitures in 100 markets.
Another condition for the approval of the transaction is on roaming commitments made by Verizon Wireless. The approval is also conditioned on Verizon Wireless's commitments to accept a phase down of competitive ETC high cost support, for any properties which Verizon Wireless retains, over a five year period following the closing of the transaction. Verizon Wireless has to use counties for measuring compliance with the Commission's wireless E911 location accuracy rules governing handset-based technologies.
In the other deal between Sprint Nextel and Clearwire, the FCC approved the transfer of control of licenses held by the two companies to New Clearwire Corp. It was in May that Sprint and Clearwire revealed an agreement to combine their wireless broadband business to form a new $14.5 billion wireless communication company. The companies said the new company, to be called Clearwire, would focus on expediting the deployment of the first nationwide next-generation mobile WiMax network.
The two companies then said Intel Corp. (INTC), Google Inc. (GOOG), Comcast Corp. (CMCSA, CMCSK), Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) and Bright House Networks collectively agreed to invest $3.2 billion into the new company. The transaction, approved by the boards of directors of all the parties, was expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2008.
The FCC's approval is conditioned on Sprint Nextel's compliance with a voluntary commitment to phase out its requests for federal high-cost universal service support over a five-year transition period and with a voluntary commitment to use counties for measuring compliance with the Commission's wireless E911 location accuracy rules governing handset-based technologies.
The licenses, leases, and authorizations transferred in this transaction include BRS, Educational Broadband Service, Point-to-Point Microwave and Local Multipoint Distribution Service.
Additionally, the federal regulator Tuesday adopted a Second Report and Order that establishes rules to allow new, sophisticated wireless devices to operate in broadcast television spectrum on a secondary basis at locations where that spectrum is open. This unused TV spectrum is commonly referred to as television "white spaces". The latest rules will allow the use of these unlicensed devices in the unused spectrum to provide broadband data and other services for consumers and businesses.
While broadcasters and wireless microphone users have been up in arms against the use of those airwaves on interference concerns, companies such as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Google Inc. (GOOG) have lobbied heavily for access to the airwaves, contending that these can be used to provide low-cost wireless Internet service, which is more powerful than the current Wi-Fi signals.
VZ closed Tuesday's regular trade at $32.61, up $1.86 or 6.05%, on 19.47 million shares.
CLWR shares, which closed Tuesday's regular trade up $0.47 or 5.01% at 9.85 on 628,183 shares gained 20.81% or $2.05 in the extended session.
S finished up Tuesday's regular trade at $4.15, up $0.15 or 3.75%, on 31.09 million shares and added 7.23% in the post-close trade to trade at $4.45.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.