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Sprint lays out process for selling some iDEN assets, making iPCS happy
Sprint's fight with iPCS continues to wage on multiple fronts, all of which have been ongoing for eons -- especially the whole iDEN tussle in the wake of Sprint's merger with Nextel. Most recently, that little soap opera had seen an Illinois court rule that Sprint's got to divest some iPCS-controlled iDEN markets to bring it back into contractual compliance and restore Mother Nature's balance, and now Sprint's gotten around to announcing how that process is going to work. In short, it seems like a free-for-all -- the company has apparently put out a few feelers for buyers, but anyone it hasn't contacted is invited to hook up with Citi, who's managing the ordeal on Sprint's behalf. The carrier says that it expects everything to be squared away by January 25 of next year, which is when the court-imposed deadline falls; in the meantime, subscribers, stay cool, because Sprint says that service will continue uninterrupted and expects any transition to be seamless.
Verizon asks for more time to spin off divested chunks of Alltel
In order to get the FCC to agree to Verizon's massive acquisition of Alltel -- the US' 5th-largest carrier -- it had to agree to some pretty serious concessions, including divestitures in a whole slew of markets to ensure that the competitive spirit remained intact. The "transaction" (as Verizon calls it) closed on January 9, and the resulting mega-carrier was given until May 9 -- a week from Saturday -- to finish spinning off the required markets. Well, as we all know, companies this large aren't known for their agility, and sure enough, Verizon is asking for just a little more time to dot its i's and cross its t's. A "Request for Extension of Management Period" has been filed with the FCC on behalf of the companies asking for another 60 days, which means the divested markets would be up and running outside of Verizon's control by July 8 of this year. Verizon blames "the sheer size and complexity of the divestitures coupled with the current economic conditions" for the request, but seriously, can't they just throw this all up on eBay for, say, a 5- or 7-day auction and be done with it? No? [Warning: PDF link]
Verizon willing to shed 15 percent of Alltel base to make merger happen
You've got to give a little to get a little, as they say, and giant, multinational joint ventures apparently aren't exempt from the mantra. In buttering up the ladies and gentlemen of the FCC enough to approve the takeover of Alltel, Verizon Wireless has agreed to spin off 85 markets' worth of Alltel subscribers in 18 states, which tallies up to about 15 percent of its 13 million-strong base. The move is designed to preserve competition, particularly in rural areas where some customers could suddenly find themselves with just a single carrier in town with enough signal strength to get the job done. There's still no telling whether the FCC will ultimately approve the move -- it could demand additional concessions or strike it down outright -- but it's a start.[Via Phone Scoop]
