Now that Verizon Wireless has all the necessary government approvals to acquire Alltel, the company is looking ahead to starting its LTE rollout in late 2009.
Verizon, currently the nation’s second-largest wireless carrier after AT&T, announced its intention to buy the fifth-largest company, Alltel, in June of this year -- transforming itself into the top carrier by subscriptions.
Department of Justice approval came in October, followed by FCC approval in November. The Federal Trade Commission added its own stamp yesterday, approving early termination of the merger. The announcement was a formality, as Verizon already agreed to divest in overlapping markets.
While Verizon-Alltel can move forward with plans to integrate the dual networks and management systems, officials are also beginning to discuss a next-generation LTE network.
The insight about LTE likely to begin within 12 months came from Dick Lynch, CTO and executive vice president of Verizon Communications, in a speech at a Cisco Systems conference this week. Verizon Communications owns 55% of Verizon Wireless, with Vodafone controlling 45%.
Verizon Wireless previously explained its intentions build LTE using the recently acquired 700 MHz spectrum.
Most industry experts say that commercial rollouts of LTE will not be readily available until 2010 at the soonest. Others predict a technological merger between LTE and WiMAX technology.