Verizon plans spectrum sale to win approval for cable deal

Verizon Wireless is planning to auction off some of its wireless spectrum hoping that regulators will approve its planned purchases of new chunks of spectrum primarily from large cable companies.

The company has met some resistance to the cable deal from rivals - including T-Mobile USA - unions and watchdog groups who say the carrier and cable companies would amass too much market power.

Verizon said in a statement today that if it's given approval to buy the cable operators' spectrum it will sell some of its own spectrum in the A and B block of the 700MHz frequency band, which it bought in an government auction in 2008. The Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice are currently evaluating the sale of the cable spectrum to Verizon.

Verizon Wireless's sale of the airwaves, which cover more than half the country, could fetch as much as $4.5 billion, analysts said. The spectrum blankets major U.S. cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Houston.

Read more -here-