Verizon Wireless and Time Warner Cable have begun cross-selling each other's products in Ohio, Kansas and North Carolina even though the government has yet to close its review of the marketing arrangement and a multi-billion dollar spectrum sale associated with it. 

The companies said yesterday that customers in Kansas City, Kan.; Raleigh, N.C.; and Columbus, Toledo and areas of southwest Ohio would be able to purchase Time Warner's video, Internet and voice services and Verizon's smartphones and tablets from both companies. Customers who sign up for the bundled services may be eligible for a $200 prepaid debit card.

Verizon is buying $3.9 billion worth of AWS spectrum from Time Warner Cable, BrightHouse Networks, Comcast and Cox Communications. Along with the spectrum deal, the five companies also agreed to market and cross-sell each other's products.  

The FCC is still reviewing the spectrum transaction and has asked the five companies for information about the marketing arrangement. The Justice Department is also said to be looking into the marketing deals.  

Verizon and its cable partners insist that the cross-selling deal and spectrum sale are unrelated despite being forged at the same time, a claim that has been repeatedly called into question by opponents to the deal.   

"They're two separate issues," Verizon spokesman Paul Macchia says. "The spectrum has nothing to do with the agreement between Time Warner Cable and Verizon Wireless." 

A spokesman for the FCC could not be immediately reached for comment.  

Verizon has said the FCC has no jurisdiction over the marketing arrangement and has also pushed ahead with cross-selling Comcast's products in Seattle, Wash.; Portland, Ore., and the San Francisco Bay Area. 

The cross-selling agreements came under intense scrutiny during a recent congressional hearing, when lawmakers asked whether the deal amounted to a non-compete clause between Verizon's FiOS service and its partners' cable offerings.