Verizon Wireless and Cricket apply to FCC for spectrum swap

Cricket Wireless and Verizon have entered an application to the FCC to do a spectrum swap, with Big Red giving Cricket a 700MHz (read: LTE) license in the Chicago area in exchange for some PCS and more AWS licenses. The companies explain in the application that the deal is mutually beneficial — Cricket’s new spectrum would get its LTE operations in Chicago going, and Verizon says it needs the trade to continue offering quality service to its customers. Since Verizon’s SpectrumCo deal indicates a desire to start offering LTE on both the 700MHz and AWS bands, its acquisition of new AWS spectrum from Cricket is likely a strategic LTE move as well. Apparently all of the spectrum involved in the swap (except for one PCS license) is not currently being used, so customers won’t be negatively affected when the deal goes through.