Verizon has agreed to acquire Frontier, a fibre internet provider, for $28bn, after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the deal on the condition that the company ended diversity-related practices.
Verizon said it planned to bring fibre to one million homes a year following the acquisition, which will also allow the company to claw back part of its fibre business after it sold some of its wireline operations to Frontier in 2015.
The FCC previously said it would not approve deals with companies that had not made sufficient progress on diversity and equity, having previously criticised Verizon for its “lack of progress” in this area.
AT&T and T-Mobile also made changes to their deals with the FCC to shed diversity-focused programmes to get their mergers approved.