The Department of Justice (DoJ) today announced that it would approve Cingular's $41 billion dollar acquisition of AT&T Wireless, provided the mobile carrier sells assets, such as spectrum and customer contracts, in 11 states.

Without the divestitures, some customers could face higher prices, reduced innovation and a delay in rolling out new broadband data services, the DoJ concluded.

The states that antitrust lawyers were most concerned with were: Connecticut, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Michigan, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.

"Today's action by the department ensures that consumers of mobile wireless services will continue to benefit from competition," R. Hewitt Pate, assistant attorney general in charge of the DoJ's antitrust division, said in a statement.

Shortly after the DoJ's announcement, Cingular said it would meet the DoJ's terms.

Click here to read the rest of this article on internetnews.com