Verizon Fields Offers for Phone Lines

VERIZON FIELDS OFFERS FOR PHONE LINES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Dionne Searcey dionne.searcey@wsj.com and Dennis K. Berman]
Verizon is fielding offers for two big packages of traditional telephone lines that could have a combined value of up to $8 billion, say people familiar with the matter. The possible sales are part of the New York-based phone giant's strategy to delve deeper into the wireless and broadband arenas, while getting out of the traditional phone business in U.S. areas that aren't slated for fiber upgrades -- which allow the company to sell more Internet-based services -- and therefore are less valuable to the company in the long run. But so far Verizon's past efforts to sell systems have had limited results. The latest possible deals include a package of access lines in three entire states: Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. These 1.6 million lines could carry a value of some $2 billion to $3 billion, people say. Verizon also has been shopping a package dubbed "GTE North" that comprises about 3.4 million access lines in former GTE Corp. territories in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan. Two people familiar with the matter said they could have a value of $4 billion to $5 billion. The identities of the prospective buyers couldn't be learned. But they might include smaller phone companies such as CenturyTel and Citizens Communications. Some expect the lines in New England to be shed before those in the Great Lakes states based on the interest of potential buyers.
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