FCC Pushes Through Wireless Deals, White Space Rules

As expected, the FCC yesterday pushed through a handful of important decisions, just as the last voters streamed into the polls to elect the next generation of politicians, which are heavily weighted on the Democratic side. The commission, appointed during a Republican presidential administration, Tuesday afternoon approved the Verizon Wireless-Alltel deal, the Sprint-Clearwire WiMAX merger, and adopted rules around use for white space spectrum.

Verizon in early June confirmed rumors of its plans to buy privately held Alltel for $28.1 billion in a bid to create the largest cellular network in the United States and claim the most subscribers.

The Sprint-Clearwire WiMAX adventure is the first 4G network (read: cable/DSL-level mobile broadband) to be built in the United States, with a time-to-market advantage over AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which are planning to deploy LTE networks beginning in 2010.

And the white space is slices of spectrum in the broadcast TV space that companies including Google, Intel and Microsoft have been lobbying the FCC to make available for next-generation mobile devices.

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