FCC review of the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile deal (CD Bulletin March 21) could take at least a year because the commission will review not only the deal’s impact on the national market but will go through individual markets around the country to assess the costs and benefits of the merger, an agency official said Monday. The commission is already trying to build up staff in the Wireless Bureau for the review, the official said. One name that has already surfaced is FCC economist Susan Singer, who had been detailed to the Office of Strategic Planning and may well be recalled to the Wireless Bureau to lead its review, the official said.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Regardless of what deals may be struck that reconfigure the wireless industry, carriers will need more spectrum, said Rick Kaplan, senior advisor to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Kaplan declined to comment on AT&T’s proposed purchase of T-Mobile. (See separate story in this issue). The deal soon will be pending before commissioners. Genachowski did not release a statement on the merger after it was announced Sunday, but is slated to keynote at CTIA Tuesday.
AT&T’s deal to buy T-Mobile could have mixed implications for the TV and video industry, industry officials said. Some said the $39 billion deal will have no real effect on the cable industry and is unlikely to provoke a change in cable operators’ wireless plans. Others saw danger for smaller content owners and entities that will have to rely on increasingly larger distributors to reach consumers. In the context of the TV spectrum reallocation battle (see separate report in this issue), it’s unlikely the deal will be much of a distraction for the wireless industry, a broadcast executive said. “I won’t say it’s a bad thing that they're occupied on other matters as well. It certainly causes them to work overtime to hold their positions together.” Carriers are capable of handling more than one policy item at a time, the executive said: Suggesting otherwise would “be like saying someone’s battle plan excludes the possibility of more than one battle front."
Expect more Capitol Hill scrutiny on AT&T and T-Mobile’s merger than was seen for the Comcast-NBC Universal combination, telecom industry lobbyists said. The $39 billion deal could steal attention from spectrum and other telecom issues, they said. The House and Senate Judiciary committees each announced hearings Monday. Neither Commerce Committee announced a hearing, but Democratic members from each have urged close scrutiny of the landmark deal (CD Bulletin March 21).
Whether the FCC should promulgate rules for TV antennas came up in several filings, posted to docket 10-235, on a rulemaking notice setting the stage for the agency to hold incentive auctions if it gets congressional authority. The NAB and Association for Maximum Service Television said the regulator ought to look into requiring antennas to carry labels outlining their performance. That filing and others said labeling won’t overcome technical hurdles (CD March 11 p6)to designing antennas so portable devices can get mobile DTV in the VHF band, where the commission seeks to voluntarily move some stations. Consumer electronics industry filings said the FCC lacks authority to take any action on antennas.
AT&T’s agreement to buy T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion is likely to dominate the wireless agenda at the FCC for many months to come. AT&T made the announcement Sunday afternoon as the main wireless conference of the year, CTIA’s annual show, was about to get under way in Orlando. T-Mobile executives withdrew from the show.
Tennessee legislation that would bring interstate and intrastate access charges to parity was passed in the state’s Senate Commerce Committee and the House’s Commerce Subcommittee after a compromise was reached between a coalition of operators including AT&T and cooperatives and independent companies. The bill is expected to pass in the full House Commerce Committee vote soon, industry officials said.
Major wireless carriers said they'll act as quickly as possible to transfer mobile text donations targeted to Japanese relief efforts. In a letter Friday to the CEOs of the four top carriers, Senate Commerce Committee member Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., urged acceleration of the mobile donation process, which can take 30 to 90 days because money isn’t sent until customers pay their monthly bills.
The FCC unanimously approved CenturyLink’s acquisition of Qwest, the commission said Friday. The deal was approved, as expected (CD March 18 p1), without net neutrality conditions. Chairman Julius Genachowski and his staff felt the conditions weren’t needed because it was a horizontal merger, unlike Comcast-NBC Universal’s vertical merger, and neither CenturyLink nor Qwest was producing content, an FCC official said. The commission imposed net neutrality conditions in the AT&T-BellSouth deal, but the CenturyLink-Qwest deal touches fewer Internet subscribers, the official said.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski plans to move forward on an ambitious agenda at the commission’s April 7 open meeting, he said Thursday, including a data roaming order that has strong support from many wireless carriers but is opposed by Verizon Wireless and AT&T. The agency will also take on pole attachment rules and increased regulation of wireless signal boosters, among other orders scheduled for a vote at the meeting.