Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo on Wednesday said the company is "extremely confident" regulators will approve its plans to purchase spectrum from U.S. cable companies.
The FCC recently extended its review of the deals because it said documents hadn't been produced in a timely manner, and the agency is in day 98 of its 180-day review.
"I know there is some speculation out there that the T-Mobile/AT&T didn't get approved, why do you think yours will. This is a very different deal," he said during a J.P. Morgan conference. "This is the purchase of spectrum, not the purchase of a company and customers. So we are very, very confident."
Some critics who oppose Verizon's pending multibillion-dollar acquisitions of spectrum from Comcast and other U.S. cable companies have accused the mobile-phone giant of hoarding the asset to the detriment of competitors who could use the spectrum to grow their businesses. Shammo appeared to respond to those accusations.
"And quite honestly, I think we have been very good stewards of our spectrum," he said. "I think we have shown a history there and we don't want to be looked at as hoarding spectrum for the industry."
