As I'm sure many of you have noticed, Verizon's been on a bit of a spectrum shopping spree as of late, agreeing to drop $3.6 billion on AWS licenses from the cable group SpectrumCo as well as another $315 million to Cox for more AWS spectrum. It seems the moves have caught the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice, which confirmed to Bloomberg today that its antitrust division is taking a close look at both deals. Not only would the agreements see Verizon gain quite a bit of AWS spectrum, but it would also see the companies involved begin selling one another's goods and services, a move that will also be under scrutiny from the Justice Department. 

We already knew that Verizon's deals with these various cable companies would need federal approval before going through, but it seems that the Department of Justice is concerned that these transactions may place too much control over spectrum into the hands of just one company. It's also worth noting that Verizon has submitted an application for approval of the spectrum switch to the FCC, so now we have to sit and wait to see how it and the DOJ feel about these agreements. We'll keep you updated as we learn more. What do you all make of the deals? Think Verizon should be allowed to snatch up this AWS spectrum and make arrangements with cable companies to offer their products?

Via Phone Scoop, Bloomberg