Department of Justice approves Verizon Alltel merger

Yesterday the Department of Justice gave anti-trust approval to Verizon's planned purchase of Alltel Wireless, provided it sold off requested assets. The DoJ is requiring Verizon to sell off assets in 100 markets across 22 states, including all of its assets in North and South Dakota, as well as a large part of its operations in Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Montana, South Carolina, Utah, and Wyoming. It must make smaller concessions in Alabama, Arizona, California, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia.

The DoJ says that these changes are necessary in order to maintain a competitive market. The DoJ also said that these are among the most extensive concession requirements ever made of a wireless company. It is estimated that the divestitures will account for a loss of well over 5 million subscribers, but will leave Verizon with 78 million subscribers in total once it has absorbed Alltel.

The Associated Press says that Verizon itself had offered up 85 of the 100 selected markets in an effort to speed up the approval process.

The FCC is expected to rule on the merger plans during its November 4th meeting, and it is thought that it might require that Verizon dump an additional 5 markets before it gives its permission to move ahead with the merger.