The FCC approved AT&T’s proposed buy of 39...
The FCC approved AT&T’s proposed buy of 39 Verizon Wireless lower 700 MHz B-block licenses and related spectrum agreements the two carriers are pursuing through Grain Management, said the Wireless Bureau Tuesday night (http://bit.ly/14rrnmG), as was expected (CD Sept 4…
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p9). The deal, announced in late January, gives AT&T licenses that cover 42 million people in 18 states, including the Chicago, Cincinnati, Los Angeles and Oklahoma City markets. Verizon will receive AWS licenses in western markets, including Los Angeles, Phoenix, Fresno, Calif., and Portland, Ore. (CD Jan 28 p9). The deal won’t result in AT&T exceeding the spectrum screen in markets affected by the deal, said the bureau, saying it did a deeper study of AT&T’s spectrum below 1 GHz in four markets because of public interest groups’ concerns. Although that study found that AT&T’s spectrum in the Lake Charles, La., and Texas 18-Edwards markets raised some potential competition issues, the bureau decided the deal’s benefits outweighed those concerns. The order required Verizon Wireless to meet the AWS buildout conditions it agreed to in a previous spectrum transaction last year: providing coverage to at least 30 percent of the total population covered by its new licenses within three years, and to 70 percent of each license’s area within seven years. The licenses AT&T is buying in the deal already included similar rules. Public interest and small-carrier groups had asked the FCC to impose conditions on the deal for roaming, interoperability, handset exclusivity, early termination fees and special access rules. The suggested conditions weren’t narrow enough to fix harms the groups claimed the deal could cause, said the bureau. Commission scrutiny of AT&T’s spectrum holdings below 1 GHz is “a sign that FCC staff at least could be receptive to the calls by Bell rivals/critics for imposing further limits on carrier spectrum holdings below 1 GHz, including in the planned broadcast/wireless two-sided ‘incentive’ auction,” said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Christopher King Wednesday in an email to investors. The FCC’s review of AT&T’s proposed purchase of former Alltel spectrum licenses from Atlantic Tele-Network remains paused after agency officials asked for more information on AT&T’s plan to migrate prepaid customers affected by the deal onto its network (CD Aug 28 p11). Although AT&T has since provided a response to the agency’s concerns, “we suspect the FCC will need a little longer to finalize that review,” King said.