Sanders wants conditions on Verizon bid for Unicel

SANDERS WANTS CONDITIONS ON VERIZON BID FOR UNICEL
[SOURCE: Burlington Free Press, AUTHOR: Dan McLean]
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) picked up support in his effort to require the Federal Communications Commission to impose four conditions on Verizon Wireless' bid to buy Rural Cellular Corp., known as Unicel. Verizon Wireless and Unicel are Vermont's largest cell phone providers; Sprint Nextel and U.S. Cellular are the state's only other providers, according to the Public Service Department. Without certain guarantees, giving Verizon Wireless control of Unicel would be "extremely dangerous for the economic development" of Vermont, Sen Sanders said. "We would have a monopoly. I'm not a great fan of monopolies," he said; the monopoly-effect would be greatest in Vermont, compared to the other 14 states that are included in the deal, Sen Sanders said. The conditions are: 1) 100 percent cell phone coverage in Vermont within 2 years; 2) indefinitely maintain, upgrade and expand the current GSM network -- or sell the system to a company that will; 3) offer existing Unicel customers equivalent phones that will operate on Verizon's CDMA network; and 4) provide roaming services at reasonable rates for voice, data and broadband service to customers of other cell phone carriers.
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071106/B...