Verizon has sold wireline business in California, Florida and Texas to Frontier Communications for $10.54 billion and agreed to lease over 11,300 wireless towers to American Tower (ATC) for $5 billion.

Both the deals will assist Verizon to reduce debt.

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Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said: “Our strategy has been to invest in our networks, improve our customers’ experience, and develop new products and services while delivering profitable growth.”

Verizon will focus on wireline operations on the East Coast and will penetrated the market for FiOS business across a contiguous footprint in Eastern states including Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Frontier currently has access lines in 28 states, providing voice, broadband and video services, including landline assets purchased from Verizon in 2009-2010.

Nearly 11,000 Verizon employees will move to Frontier after the transaction.

Verizon’s wireline business in California, Florida and Texas had nearly 3.7 million voice connections, nearly 2.2 million data customers, including 1.6 million FiOS Internet customers; and 1.2 million FiOS Video customers in Q4 2014.

The transaction includes Verizon’s FiOS Internet and Video customers, switched and special access lines, as well as its high-speed Internet service and long-distance voice accounts in these three states.

The consumer and mass business wireline operations that Verizon is retaining in nine states and the District of Columbia and had 16.1 million wireline voice connections; 7 million data customers, including nearly 5.1 million FiOS Internet customers; and 4.5 million FiOS Video customers.

American Tower will have exclusive rights to lease and operate over 11,300 Verizon cell towers. The average term of the lease rights is about 28 years. In addition, Verizon will sell approximately 165 towers outright.

Verizon will sublease capacity on the towers from American Tower for a minimum of 10 years for $1,900 per month per site, with annual rent increases of 2 percent. Verizon will have customary renewal options that could potentially extend the full term of the sublease to 50 years.

Baburajan K
[email protected]