This morning, Verizon announced that they received initial approval from the FCC to begin the buyback process of 45% of Verizon Wireless from Vodafone, which is one of the largest wireless carriers in the world. Once the deal is complete, Verizon will own 100% of Verizon Wireless again. The deal is set to complete in the first quarter of 2014. Verizon also states that this will allow the company to “strengthen our ability to provide an outstanding consumer experience with advanced mobile devices, first-in-our-class network quality and reliability, and new products and services that leverage and integrate our global communications technologies.”
Additionally, Verizon’s Executive Vice President, Randal Milch had great things to say about this decision: “We thank the FCC for its quick action in approving our transaction with Vodafone, which will provide Verizon with 100 percent ownership of Verizon Wireless and a boost to one of the most important sectors of the U.S. economy. This application approval also marks the first use of the streamlined foreign-ownership review procedures that the FCC adopted earlier this year, and we are grateful to the commission for its commitment to process reforms that benefit wireless carriers and the customers we serve.”
As far as changes, I wouldn’t expect a whole lot of changes, at least not right off the bat. The deal also probably won’t affect your wireless bill anytime soon either. Although this is Verizon we’re talking about here. So you may want to keep a close eye on your bill in the coming months. However this deal is definitely going to help out Verizon’s bottom line.
It’s not a real surprise that the FCC approved of this deal, since Verizon was just buying out Vodafone’s share in their wireless business. So I didn’t see any real reason why they’d stop that from happening. But then again, strange things have happened before.