Frontier reached another milestone this week in its pending deal to acquire Verizon's local lines in 14 states as the Arizona Corporation Commission unanimously gave its blessing to transfer the RBOC's local wireline operations to Frontier.
Arizona is the fifth state to approve the deal. Following unanimous approvals in 2009 by the California Public Utilities Commission, the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada and the Public Service Commission of South Carolina, the Ohio Public Utilities Commission voted to approve the deal last week. Frontier also obtained cable television franchise approval from the 41 communities in Oregon and Washington State.
"By approving this transaction, Arizona regulators have acted in the interest of the state's consumers," said Tim McCallion, president of Verizon's West region in a release. "The transaction allows Frontier and Verizon to concentrate on serving customers in the areas where the companies are strongest and will bring benefits, such as increased broadband availability, to consumers and small businesses in Arizona."
While Frontier has cleared another hurdle in the acquisition process, it still needs regulatory buy-in from not only Illinois, Oregon, Washington and West Virginia, but also from the FCC.
For more:
- see the release here
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