Verizon to Use Spectrum for Broadband
Updated: 4/7/2008
Verizon Wireless said Friday it will use the spectrum it agreed to buy in the government's wireless auction this winter to expand its data services.
The company will pay a total of $9.36 billion for a nationwide spectrum footprint in the consumer-friendly ''C-Block'' group of licenses, as well as 102 licenses for individual markets around the country.
Verizon Wireless won almost all the ''C block'' spectrum on offer in the Federal Communications Commission auction, which the company said will allow it to offer the speed and performance ''ideal'' for connecting consumer electronics such as mobile phones, medical devices and gaming consoles.
The new spectrum will not be clear for use until mid-February 2009, when the companies using it for analog television broadcasts are required to stop and switch to digital broadcasting.
The company plans to launch a new wireless network in 2010 in the 700-MHz spectrum, which is considered especially valuable because it can transmit through walls and help meet the growing demand for faster wireless downloads.
''We now have sufficient spectrum to continue growing our business and data revenues well into — and possibly through — the next decade,'' Lowell McAdam, the company's president and chief executive, said in a statement.
Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc., which owns the majority stake, and Britain's Vodafone Group PLC.
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BASKING RIDGE, N.J. (AP) — Verizon Wireless said Friday it will use the spectrum it agreed to buy in the government's wireless auction this winter to expand its data services.
The company will pay a total of $9.36 billion for a nationwide spectrum footprint in the consumer-friendly ''C-Block'' group of licenses, as well as 102 licenses for individual markets around the country.
Verizon Wireless won almost all the ''C block'' spectrum on offer in the Federal Communications Commission auction, which the company said will allow it to offer the speed and performance ''ideal'' for connecting consumer electronics such as mobile phones, medical devices and gaming consoles.
The new spectrum will not be clear for use until mid-February 2009, when the companies using it for analog television broadcasts are required to stop and switch to digital broadcasting.
The company plans to launch a new wireless network in 2010 in the 700-MHz spectrum, which is considered especially valuable because it can transmit through walls and help meet the growing demand for faster wireless downloads.
''We now have sufficient spectrum to continue growing our business and data revenues well into — and possibly through — the next decade,'' Lowell McAdam, the company's president and chief executive, said in a statement.
Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc., which owns the majority stake, and Britain's Vodafone Group PLC.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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