The Justice Department said Thursday it is requiring Verizon and a group of cable companies to make changes to a controversial joint marketing agreement involving the firms, saying the deal as originally proposed could harm competition.
The changes called for by Justice include barring Verizon from reselling the cable companies services where Verizon offers its FiOS broadband service.
Justice also said it would allow Verizon to buy spectrum from the cable firms as long as it moves forward with a spectrum swap it proposed earlier this summer with rival T-Mobile USA.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said in light of the proposed settlement and the deal with T-Mobile, he is recommending the commission also back the deals.
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