| Divesting won't be easy. Given the current economic climate, I think Verizon may have some problems finding buyers. Most of the markets that Verizon wants to dump aren't in highly-urban areas and, therefore, aren't of interest to the big carriers. Rural carriers are probably going to have even more hurdles in finding financing these days than their larger, urban cousins. Truthfully, don't expect GSM companies to be interested--TMobile won spectrum rights to parts of these regions several years ago and hasn't chosen to deploy the technology due to cost/profit concerns. Alltel's GSM coverage was simply for roaming agreements and probably isn't robust enough to warrant interest in purchasing those assets. I wouldn't be surprised to see yet another investment consortium going into partnership to buy some areas that may seem desirable (i.e, they can hold on to the asset for max of 12 months and then sell for profit, less likely in the markets being dumped). The interesting thing will be whether Verizon just shuts off service if they can't find buyers within a reasonable time frame. Clearly, no one, especially the FCC, cares about the affected consumers. |
