AT&T Could Support Equally Applied Incentive Auction Rules, CEO Stephenson Says
AT&T “would be supportive of rules around the [broadcast incentive] auction that would limit the amount of spectrum any one company could garner,” as long as “everyone is bound” to those rules, CEO Randall Stephenson said Tuesday at a UBS investor conference. “That seems like a reasonable place for us. ... The more restrictions you begin to put on the auction participants, the more it drives the value down and the more risk you have of a failed auction.”
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
AT&T and Verizon Communications have opposed auction rules that would limit their participation in the auction. An AT&T spokesman said Stephenson’s comments reflected the position the carrier took in a blog post in early November. Joan Marsh, AT&T vice president-federal regulatory, said in that post that rules New Zealand adopted for the auction of 90 megahertz in the 700 MHz band were evenhanded and were a “stark” contrast to T-Mobile’s proposal to limit all low-band spectrum holdings. AT&T still believes “the best way to ensure that the 600 MHz auction achieves its statutory purposes is to run an open and unrestricted auction,” but “if rules are adopted for the purpose of ensuring multiple winners at auction, as they were in New Zealand, they should apply fairly and evenly to all participants,” Marsh said (http://bit.ly/1bUxuI6). AT&T’s statements represent “a change from their public position, but they have been signaling this privately for awhile,” said Blair Levin, an Aspen Institute fellow and Gig.U executive director.
U.S. Cellular views AT&T’s statements as a “positive development,” said Grant Spellmeyer, vice president-regulatory affairs and public policy. “We have long advocated for a spectrum cap that is applied in such a way as to limit the amount that any single carrier can win in any given market in any given auction.” Senate Commerce Committee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., endorsed the same concept during a hearing Tuesday on the incentive auction, which Spellmeyer said was “an important development.” (See separate report in this issue.) Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry was “pleased to hear Stephenson’s comment,” Berry told us. “We should all agree that multiple carriers should have the opportunity to win spectrum. More participants mean greater competition and benefits to consumers and the economy."
Stephenson told investors AT&T’s own pre-auction spectrum position is “really good” following its recent purchase of 39 of Verizon Wireless’s lower 700 MHz B-block licenses, its proposed buy of Leap Wireless and other recent transactions. But the carrier is “encouraging the FCC to keep pushing” for reallocation of federally owned spectrum for commercial use because the carriers will likely push even harder for more spectrum by 2018-2019, Stephenson said.