Verizon punches back in debate over TracFone ownership

Opponents to Verizon’s planned acquisition of prepaid TracFone often cite the negative impacts they believe it will have on Lifeline subscribers and the prepaid market overall. But Verizon is pitching the transaction as a means of improving TracFone’s ability to provide Lifeline-supported services and better serve the prepaid sector. Verizon said that TracFone, as part of Verizon, will become a stronger competitor against the flanker prepaid brands of AT&T (Cricket ) and T-Mobile (Metro). Verizon alluded to the fact it doesn’t participate in the prepaid segment in “any meaningful way,” but with the acquisition of TracFone, it would be jumping to the head of the pack. TracFone at the end of the fourth quarter had about 20.7 million customers, while Cricket has about 11 million and Metro has about 20 million, according to Wave7 Research. Verizon also said that commenters either ignore or “fail to grasp” that the transaction will bring facilities-based competition to Lifeline service.