Grassroots Comments Opposing AT&T/T-Mobile May Have Little Effect

In a single day, May 21, 2010, 9,525 comments were filed on Comcast’s purchase of control in NBCUniversal. And 4,831 additional comments were filed the following Monday, the next business day.

The FCC was flooded with more than 100,000 comments and other filings in response to its net neutrality notice of rulemaking early last year. The volume was highlighted at the time by a spokesman for Chairman Julius Genachowski. The agency’s Dec. 21 report and order mentions the comments in its second paragraph. But the FCC does not make reference to any of the comments deeper in the order. Similarly, the commission received more than 29,000 comments on Comcast-NBCUniversal. The comments are referenced only once in the order approving the deal.

The FCC’s merger review is “fact-based,” and short comments like those filed on the AT&T/T-Mobile deal are both impossible to verify and contain more “rhetoric” than facts, AT&T Senior Vice President Robert Quinn said in an interview Wednesday. “I don’t believe that many of these comments contain the type of factual details that the FCC considers relevant,” he said. “It is what it is and I think the FCC sees through the rhetoric that isn’t supported by facts."

"Write-in campaigns have become a staple in high-profile FCC battles, but they don’t typically have much effect on what the commission actually does,” said MF Global analyst Paul Gallant. Medley Global Advisors analyst Jeff Silva also predicted that the filings will be given little weight by the commission. “While the quantity of comments expressing one view or another in a major proceeding like this cannot be ignored, the weight accorded numbers alone tends to be limited,” he said. “FCC officials are fairly well sophisticated at poring over and synthesizing large volumes of public comments. Public comments obviously play a valuable role, but a mix of factors -- combined with thorough analysis -- ultimately inform FCC decision-making."

As was the case with the net neutrality and comments on Comcast-NBC Universal, many this time appear to have been generated by websites created by various groups opposed to AT&T/T-Mobile. They offered in at least one case to channel them directly to the FCC’s filing system. A Consumer Reports website, hearusnow.org, asks people to write comments in a box, which it will then file at the commission. “Your comments will be submitted to the FCC as part of the public record, so don’t include personal account information,” the group advises.

TMO News offers directions on how to make a filing using the commission’s ECFS system. “One sentence submissions aren’t going to do much good, write something that has ‘meat’ to it,” it suggests. “Proper, formal English should be used. Try and proofread your statement before it’s submitted. Treat it like it’s a researched essay.” Androidandme.com and Inquisitr.com also direct readers to ECFS Express, encouraging them to submit comments. “Think the T-Mobile/AT&T deal sucks? Tell the FCC why,” both advise.

Merger opponents hope the comments will be given weight by the FCC as it examines the deal. One opponent noted that the agency’s review of the deal could wrap up close to the 2012 presidential election, which means the comments could be given extra weight. “The kinds of people filing comments are the same ones who supported Barack Obama in 2008 and I don’t think the FCC will want to ignore this constituency,” said a nonprofit group official.

The White House could find itself in the “uncomfortable position” of choosing between unions, which support the AT&T/T-Mobile, and “grassroots organizers who made up the rank and file” of “Obama’s army” in 2008, said Public Knowledge Legal Director Harold Feld. “I think the comments show a lot of people are really upset at the prospects for this merger,” he said. “How that pans out at the FCC and politically remains to be seen. To the extent the White House and members of Congress start making election year calculations as this drags on, I expect them to look at the number of individual comments and their intensity. If they see a substantial number of passionate individual comments, they are much more likely to sit on the sidelines or actively oppose the merger."

Rural Cellular Association President Steve Berry isn’t surprised by the volume of comments filed, and hopes the FCC and Department of Justice will view the deal as “a bridge too far,” which will be bad for competition, he said. “I am sure as the process continues there will be more opposition,” Berry said. “Many RCA carriers remain very concerned about the proposed action -- and RCA intends to let our concerns be known also. It might be prudent to provide more time for comments but we will make sure we are responsive in the timeframe allowed. I don’t know that you need a lot more time to recognize the potential disaster this will cause to the competitive marketplace."

"This merger is bad for consumers and bad for competition, and people recognize that, which is why we're seeing this groundswell of grassroots opposition,” said Free Press Research Director Derek Turner. “When the FCC evaluates all the information, including the comments from the one constituency it is charged with serving -- the public -- there is no way this merger can be deemed in the public interest."

"The FCC just needs to accept the fact that, in this era of easy electronic filing, consumer groups are going to try to generate thousands of submissions supporting their positions through mass web-based campaigns,” said Free State Foundation President Randolph May. “This may well cause those on the other side to respond with their own mass campaigns. The FCC can’t entirely ignore these mass submissions, at least to the extent they are not identical or near-identical and contain any real substantive analysis.” But, “consistent with the Administrative Procedure Act,” the FCC also must give them “very little weight,” May said.

Meanwhile, AT&T released a statement Wednesday by Michael Schweder, president of the Mid-Atlantic Region, responding to a Sprint Nextel move to get the West Virginia Public Service Commission to review the deal (CD May 4 p1). “AT&T is trying to bring the latest and fastest mobile Internet service to most of the citizens of West Virginia,” he said. “Since Sprint is trying to stop that, we hope state officials will ask Sprint what its own plans are for bringing LTE speeds to the people of West Virginia. We suspect Sprint either has no such plan, or that its own plans pale in comparison to AT&T’s."

"What is AT&T afraid of in West Virginia?” responded Sprint spokesman John Taylor. “All Sprint has asked the West Virginia Public Service Commission to do is to hold a public hearing about their planned takeover of T-Mobile. Is AT&T afraid of what such a hearing would uncover? Consumers in West Virginia deserve to know what the T-Mobile takeover means for wireless prices, handset selection and mobile broadband coverage.”