Verizon Ordered to Run Separate Phone Units

Verizon Communications Inc. was ordered to run separate units for wholesale and individual customers in Pennsylvania, a move that spares the largest local U.S. phone company from a costly breakup.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission adopted a plan letting Verizon remain intact in exchange for treating rivals leasing its lines the same way it treats its own retail business. If the company rejects the order, a full breakup might be required, the agency said.

Pennsylvania is among several states considering steps to break up a local phone company to spur competition, prompted by demands from rivals.

Verizon has said creating different companies, as first proposed in 1999, would cost $1 billion.

Verizon said that some provisions of the order are troubling, and that the company still must decide whether to accept the plan.

Shares of Verizon fell 11 cents to close at $46 on the New York Stock Exchange.