Verizon this week announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has given the go-ahead to its sale of wireline operations in three U.S. states to Frontier Communications.
Under the terms of the deal, Frontier will pay US$10.54 billion for Verizon’s local wireline network assets and operations in California, Florida and Texas.
Verizon said it expects the deal to close by the end of the first quarter of 2016.
Michael Glover, deputy general counsel, Verizon public policy and government affairs, said the FCC’s approval demonstrates that the deal is in the public interest and will benefit customers in the three states involved.
"Last May, the U.S. Department of Justice also reviewed and cleared the proposed sale, further confirming that the transaction does not present market competition issues," Glover said.
"With these approvals in hand, we look forward to promptly receiving the remaining regulatory approvals in the coming months," he added.
When it announced the deal in February, Verizon said that the transaction would see around 11,000 of its employees move to Frontier.
It also noted that as of the end of 2014, the o perations in question served about 3.7 million voice connections; some 2.2 million high-speed data customers, including approximately 1.6 million FiOS Internet customers; and about 1.2 million FiOS Video customers.
Separately, on Thursday Verizon announced a dividend hike.
The telco said on 2 November it will pay a quarterly dividend of 56.5 cents per share, up by 1.5 cents or 2.7% on its previous quarterly payout.
"On an annual basis, this increases Verizon’s dividend by 6 cents per share, from $2.20 to $2.26 per share," the operator said.
