Verizon Mulls Selling Two Large Landlines

A Verizon Communications spokesman Thursday confirmed reports that the company has been discussing the sale of its landlines in two regions of the U.S. No decision on any deals has been made, he said.

"We're evaluating the sales of landlines in both areas," said John Bonomo. One package would cover Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont while the other region consists of former GTE service areas in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.

Although unconfirmed by Verizon, published reports have stated that the two regions combined could fetch a price of about $8 billion. Verizon has been attempting to sell off its landlines with varying success – the firm sold a swath of landlines in Hawaii and Alabama recently, although an attempt to sell landlines in New York State was unsuccessful.

Verizon and its major competitor, AT&T, have been pouring capital into wireless and fiber offerings and funds from the sale of aging landlines could help finance the deployment of the newer technologies.

Verizon has said it would like to buy out Vodafone Group's 45 percent interest in highly-profitable Verizon Wireless. Bonomo said a potential sale of the landlines shouldn't be linked to any possible purchase of the Vodafone stake. He noted that Verizon continually evaluates all of its assets and properties.In the past Verizon has sold landlines to telephone company CenturyTel and investment firm the Caryle Group.