T-Mobile, MetroPCS and others this week asked the FCC to block Verizon’s $3.9 billion purchase of spectrum from a joint venture of cable companies. The filings from the carriers along with petitions from the Rural Telecommunications Group and the Rural Cellular Association asked the FCC to prevent Verizon from acquiring blocks of 700MHz and AWS spectrum for $3.6 billion from the JV between Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Cox Communications. All the filings came on the final day set by the commission for opposition.
T-Mobile said in its filing that if approved, Verizon would be obtaining unused AWS spectrum that would be unlikely to provide near-term benefits, and shut out others that could use the spectrum to launch LTE services. MetroPCS said that the deals should not be approved because Verizon and the cable companies have not submitted information necessary to evaluate whether the deals are in the public interest. Verizon responded that it should be able to move forward with the purchase, as the cable companies are not using the spectrum.
Sources:
- T-Mobile filing
- MetroPCS filing
- RCA filing
- Sprint filing
- DirecTV filing
- Bloomberg article
- CWA release
via Fierce Wireless
Mickey Papillon
Joey Koppes
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