FCC Close to Signing Off on T-Mobile/MetroPCS
The FCC’s path to signoff on Deutsche Telekom’s buy of MetroPCS to fold it into T-Mobile appears to be reaching the end stages. The commission is expected to endorse the deal with minimum conditions, officials say. One remaining question is whether the full FCC will vote on the transaction or whether it will be approved as a Wireless Bureau order, without a full commission vote. T-Mobile has pressed for a bureau-level order in the interest of speeding up approval.
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Earlier this week, the Justice Department effectively greenlighted the deal (CD March 7 p16). It still must be approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and MetroPCS shareholders, who are scheduled to vote April 12.
Meanwhile, T-Mobile fired back Thursday at the Communications Workers of America, which said in a recent filing at the FCC the combination of the two companies will inevitably mean job loss (http://bit.ly/YulCDl). Since CWA and T-Mobile are fighting over numbers not part of the public record, the public copy of T-Mobile’s filing was heavily redacted.
"The recent ex parte meetings and accompanying filing of the Communications Workers of America repeat its earlier mischaracterizations about the effects of the proposed MetroPCS and T-Mobile USA transaction on employment,” T-Mobile said. There is no “smoking gun,” T-Mobile said. “As documented in the record before the Commission, the Applicants’ goal in pursuing the proposed transaction is the growth of the combined company -- growth that could result in increased employment opportunities."
CWA claims the transaction “is premised on cost cutting that will result in job losses numbering in the thousands,” T-Mobile said. “This is simply not consistent with the record before the Commission and the highly confidential business plans of the Applicants, which have been submitted. In fact, the anticipated total position reductions used in the Applicants’ synergies analysis number in the hundreds -- not thousands -- for a combined workforce of nearly 38,000."
CWA will respond to T-Mobile’s latest filing in a filing of its own at the FCC, said Debbie Goldman, telecommunications policy director at the CWA.
"This deal is too important for it to be handled at the bureau level only,” Goldman told us. “We've raised serious concerns about jobs after the transaction and the commissioners have to have an opportunity to review the evidence, review the order and vote on the order.” The merger is too big not to get full commission review, she said. The transaction covers 43 million subscribers and companies with 38,000 employees and “multi-billion dollars in annual revenue,” she said.