AT&T/T-Mobile Will Bring Scrutiny to Industry Practices, Activists Say

"While we have been talking about these issues for a number of years now, I think you'll hear more,” Consumers Union Policy Counsel Parul Desai said: “A lot of these issues” will get scrutiny as Congress holds hearings on the deal. “We are already moving toward a duopoly for unregulated mobile Internet access,” with AT&T and Verizon Wireless “deciding pricing” and “what phones you get to use,” Desai said. For Legal Director Harold Feld of Public Knowledge, the deal “really is a total disaster,” he said. “It sucks, but there is actually hope on this one,” unlike on Comcast’s purchase of control in NBC Universal. The FCC and Justice Department approved that deal with conditions in January. Feld and other panelists said the takeover of T-Mobile is a combination of horizontal assets, unlike Comcast-NBC Universal, and those transactions often are blocked.

Wireless device manufacturers might have less leverage with carriers if AT&T succeeds in buying T-Mobile, because there would be one less major wireless service provider, said Policy Counsel Chris Riley of Free Press. The group sponsored the conference, at which many opponents of telecom industry consolidation spoke, and Riley moderated the wireless panel. Cellphone makers “might start having fewer options in the negotiations they enter with the Verizons and AT&Ts of the world,” should T-Mobile be purchased, he said. “I think a lot of people will be fired because of this merger."

"Obviously, like a lot of companies, Google is taking a close look at this merger,” said Policy Counsel Harry Wingo, saying more information about the deal will come when AT&T and T-Mobile file their application at the FCC. Beyond that, the Google executive had no more to say about the deal. He stressed that when it comes to reallocation of spectrum for wireless broadband, Google wants to ensure that there are ample frequencies for use by white spaces devices that operate in the spaces between TV channels.

Before incentive auctions occur, “we still need more information, we still need the data,” which could be obtained with a spectrum inventory, Wingo said: “We're not opposed to incentive auctions at all in theory, but we know the details will be important,” and haven’t been worked out. A slide he showed asked if there’s a “spectrum crunch.” It said “facts, not assumptions, are needed to test these claims” and “discussion must be data-driven.” Wingo noted that “a lot of folks have pointed out that at any time, there is not a lot of spectrum being used."

"Spectrum capacity is abundant, because the folks who have licenses for it are hardly using it,” said director Michael Calabrese of the New America Foundation. He estimated that in major metropolitan areas, less than 20 percent of licensed spectrum below 3 GHz is being used, and 10 percent is in suburban and other areas. “A lot of it is the incumbents just want to profit off the scarcity,” Calabrese said. “The excuses they throw out center on interference, and some of those concerns of course are real” including on interference from other licensees on the same or adjacent channels, he said. What he called smart radio technology means “it is increasingly possible to have a public commons on the airwaves,” to open unused spectrum to more devices and users, Calabrese said: That’s “where you simply have rules of the road and let the devices operate around each other.”