Verizon has enough spectrum for four to five years

Verizon Communications chief financial officer Fran Shammo has indicated that Verizon Wireless now has enough spectrum to handle its capacity needs for the next four to five years. Speaking to Fierce Wireless at the Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia Conference, Shammo called the carrier’s recently approved USD3.9 billion purchase of nationwide Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum from a group of cable companies ‘an absolute strategic acquisition for us’. The Verizon CFO suggested that by mid-2013 the company will have filled in its 3G coverage footprint with its in-deployment 700MHz Long Term Evolution (LTE) service. At that point, he said, Verizon may start deploying its AWS spectrum for 4G in certain cities.