T-Mobile/Sprint Ruling May Pressure CPUC to Act on Deal, Says ex-Commissioner
T-Mobile and Sprint urged the California Public Utilities Commission Tuesday to complete its review of their proposed deal and issue a recommended decision by Feb. 25 so the commission can vote on the transaction at its March 26 meeting. The…
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carriers emailed assigned Commissioner Cliff Rechtschaffen and Administrative Law Judge Karl Bemesderfer a copy of Judge Victor Marrero's decision approving the combination in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (see 2002110026). “The applications have now been pending before this Commission for more than 18 months, and the second round of hearings and associated briefing were completed nearly two months ago,” wrote carriers’ attorney Suzanne Toller of Davis Wright in CPUC docket A.18-07-011. “Continued delay in completing the Commission’s review in this already-lengthy proceeding would be highly prejudicial to Joint Applicants.” The SDNY decision increases pressure on Rechtschaffen and Bemesderfer to propose a decision soon, former CPUC and FCC Commissioner Rachelle Chong told us Wednesday at the NARUC Winter Summit in Washington. She works with the California Emerging Technology Fund, which signed a pact last April with the carriers to support the deal (see 1904080041). Chong doubts California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, one of the Democratic AGs who unsuccessfully challenged the transaction at SDNY, can still weigh in at CPUC because the record is closed, she said. There's momentum from federal reviews and the court decision for approving T-Mobile/Sprint, but Chong expects CPUC to follow its historical practice of applying many conditions, she said. The Utility Reform Network and other consumer advocates disagreed Wednesday that the court decision means the CPUC must speed up. "This Commission must use the record before it, developed through significant discovery, thousands of pages of testimony, and hours of hearings, to come to its conclusions," TURN Managing Director-San Diego Christine Mailloux wrote the ALJ and commissioner. "While the Commission should not bow to external pressure to hasten the pace of its review, Joint Advocates believe that the Commission could quickly come to a finding that this merger is not in the public interest."