FCC meeting delayed; Verizon, Sprint deals mulled

The Federal Communications Commission meeting on Tuesday was delayed as the five commissioners sought to finalize conditions for Verizon Wireless's acquisition of Alltel. The agency was scheduled to vote on Verizon Wireless's $28 billion acquisition of Alltel, a rural wireless provider, and on Sprint Nextel $14.5 billion deal with Clearwire, a wireless Internet service provider.FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters that the other four commissioners were likely discussing what roaming conditions to put on the Verizon deal. Verizon had already offered to accept roaming conditions on the Alltel deal, but many smaller rural cell-phone companies worry that Verizon will change the rate structure after existing agreements expire. Democratic commissioners have been pushing to require those roaming agreements, which require Verizon Wireless to offer rivals the same rates it offers itself, for seven years. Martin had agreed to condition the deal on having those contracts in place for two years.