Verizon Planning to Sell GTE’s Cable Television Business

NEW YORK — Verizon Communications, the local telephone company formed by the merger of Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp., said Friday that it wants to sell GTE’s cable television operations so it can focus on new ways to distribute high-speed video services.

Verizon said that for a month it has been collecting offers from companies interested in buying GTE’s cable business, which serves 123,000 customers in California, Florida and Hawaii. It has not set a deadline for the sale.

“It’s the cable systems that are for sale. It’s not video that we’re getting out of. We just prefer to leverage other systems,” said Verizon spokeswoman Bobbi Hennessey.

Verizon decided to exit the traditional cable television market as long-distance telephone company AT&T; Corp. has invested $100 billion in buying cable operators.

AT&T; plans to provide telephone and Internet access via cable television wires, rather than the Baby Bell companies’ local telephone networks.

Verizon, meanwhile, has looked to new technologies to transmit video services. The company recently forged a deal with Enron Corp. and Blockbuster Inc. to provide movies on demand to customers’ television sets.

Under that deal, Verizon and several other telephone companies will serve as distribution partners and design the communications network to provide entertainment on demand and high-speed Internet access.

Hennessey said Verizon is exploring the use of other services such as VDSL (very high-speed digital subscriber line) technology, which transmits video services over traditional copper telephone wires.

Verizon also resells the satellite television services of DirecTV, which is owned by General Motors Corp.’s Hughes Electronics Corp.

On Friday, Verizon shares closed unchanged at $47 on the New York Stock Exchange.