AT&T is vowing a fight, but if the carrier’s $39 billion buy of T-Mobile falls through, one big implication is ramped up pressure on federal policymakers to get more spectrum online quickly for wireless broadband, industry officials and analysts said Thursday. Pressure was already strong for the FCC and NTIA to make good on administration promises to make another 500 MHz available for broadband.
The Justice Department, in a surprisingly quick decision, said Wednesday it’s suing to block AT&T’s buy of T-Mobile. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Michael Copps were quick to react, issuing statements saying they too had concerns about the deal, raising the question of whether the transaction was in trouble at the commission as well. A top AT&T executive expressed surprise and said the company will fight the DOJ’s decision.
The Justice Department, in a surprisingly quick decision, said Wednesday it’s suing to block AT&T’s buy of T-Mobile. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Michael Copps were quick to react, issuing statements saying they too had concerns about the deal, raising the question of whether the transaction was in trouble at the commission as well. A top AT&T executive expressed surprise and said the company will fight the DOJ’s decision.
Positions vacated at the Media Access Project this year that haven’t all been filled keep the group challenged to stay active on a wide array of communications policy issues, current and former staffers said. They agreed it’s a bad time for MAP to be missing a CEO and an associate director. It has a new public relations and fund raising staffer, as of this month, replacing one who left to work for House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. Senior Vice President Andrew Schwartzman said he hopes to fill the other vacancies in 2011.
Positions vacated at the Media Access Project this year that haven’t all been filled keep the group challenged to stay active on a wide array of communications policy issues, current and former staffers said. They agreed it’s a bad time for MAP to be missing a CEO and an associate director. It has a new public relations and fund raising staffer, as of this month, replacing one who left to work for House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. Senior Vice President Andrew Schwartzman said he hopes to fill the other vacancies in 2011.
The FCC Wireless Bureau Friday restarted it’s informal 180-day “shot clock” on its review of AT&T’s buy of T-Mobile. As a result, Friday was officially day 83 of the review. AT&T welcomed the development, but merger critics said the quick restart of the clock could also be bad news for AT&T. Analysts cautioned against reading too much into the development.
For the second time in three years, the FCC could be on the cusp of making major changes to the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regimes. In late 2008, those efforts fell flat when then-Chairman Kevin Martin appeared to have support lined up for a reform order, but pulled an item prior to a vote. All signs this time around are that Chairman Julius Genachowski would like to succeed where the former commission fell short.
More judges on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should hear challenges to the FCC’s ownership rules remanded in its Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC decision, said a group of broadcasters and newspaper owners in a petition for an en banc rehearing filed with the court late Monday. In a 2-1 decision in July, a three-judge panel sent back to the FCC several rules that would have relaxed restrictions on the cross-ownership of local broadcast and daily newspaper assets in the same market (CD July 8 p3). The group includes Fox, Tribune, CBS, NAB, Newspaper Association of America, Belo, Morris Communications and Clear Channel. It said the panel’s decision goes against the court’s Administrative Procedure Act precedents and also undermines the 1996 Telecom Act by stymieing Congress’ intent to have the FCC regularly update its ownership rules. Critics of media consolidation said the petition will probably fail.
LightSquared presents a key early test of the Obama administration’s proposal to reallocate 500 MHz of spectrum to wireless broadband in 10 years. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski stressed in a recent briefing for reporters that any decision will be based on engineering analysis and won’t be political (CD Aug 10 p2). LightSquared demonstrates the kinds of difficulties presented by many of the bands regulators hope to convert to broadband use, said industry officials in interviews last week.
A second cable operator may get an FCC waiver to encrypt all channels. RCN now wants (CD Aug 16 p13) to follow Cablevision’s lead and be able to turn on and off service remotely, cutting down on signal theft and the expense and pollution of sending out technicians. Commission approval of RCN’s new request seems likely, and there will probably be less opposition to the move expressed than Cablevision faced in 2009, industry lawyers and an analyst said in interviews Tuesday. They said the regulator seems unlikely to start a rulemaking to examine whether it’s worth keeping a ban on operators encrypting channels in the basic tier. RCN wants out of that ban in Chicago and New York, where it’s gone all-digital.