FCC Opens Docket on Cable Wireless Spectrum Sale to Verizon

By John Eggerton
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

The Federal Communications Commssion has opened the docket on cable companies' sale of wireless spectrum to Verizon.

That comes in the wake of the filing of applications by cable joint venture SpectrumCo and Cox to sell spectrum they bought at the FCC's advanced wireless services auction to Verizon.

SpectrumCo is a consortium owned by Comcast (63%), Time Warner Cable (31.2%) and Bright House (5.3%), which bought the spectrum in the FCC's 2006 advanced wireless services auction along with Sprint, which got bought out by the other four in 2007, and Cox, which dropped out in 2009, but took its spectrum with it. Verizon is offering $3.6 billion. It has also struck a deal to buy that spectrum for $325 million.

The FCC said that it would issue another notice establishing a comment cycle.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.