The FCC is waiting to hear from CenturyLink and Qwest about the kinds of conditions they would accept for approval of their deal, commission officials told us. Approval is not “imminent,” but the fact-finding has wrapped up, the officials said. The deal is reaching “the home stretch,” Stifel Nicolaus analyst Rebecca Arbogast wrote Friday, but a government shutdown remains “a threat.” She added, “We expect the FCC will impose duties” on the combined company “in certain areas -- including wholesale performance and broadband deployment/adoption, some of which could resemble previous conditions on CenturyLink-Embarq and Frontier-Verizon -- with additional obligations possible, but not as onerous as critics want."
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski appears to be using Qwest-CenturyLink merger conditions as a “trick shot” way of regulating broadband without reclassifying the service, Cardozo Law Professor Susan Crawford, a former Obama administration telecom adviser, said Thursday. “He’s going to try to get through merger conditions what another regulator would try to get through regulatory authority,” she said.
Cbeyond, Integra Telecom and Socket Telecom have urged the FCC to impose conditions on CenturyLink’s planned purchase of Qwest to require the combined company to guarantee wholesale service quality, provide CLECs with conditioned copper loops and prevent the company from increasing special access rates or canceling special access agreements. The comments filed Thursday replied to a Sept. 29 letter from CenturyLink saying that a settlement with Sprint, Paetec, Mediacom, Cox and 360Networks in Iowa provides a model for relations with CLECs.
Washington’s Utilities and Transportation Commission conditionally approved the purchase of Verizon’s landline network by Frontier, the agency said late Friday. The transaction has been approved by regulators in Arizona, California, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon and South Carolina. “We're pleased the Commission has acted and approved the transaction,” said Tim McCallion, president of Verizon’s West region. “We are now evaluating the order and the unique circumstances underlying the conditions."
Frontier Communications’ proposed acquisition of Verizon networks in Oregon received approval late Friday from the state Public Utility Commission. But the regulator imposed a series of conditions in addition to settlements negotiated earlier between Frontier and the commission’s staff and other intervenors. The company is embracing all such stipulations with enthusiasm, said spokesman Stephen Crosby.
Ohio’s Public Utilities Commission voted Thursday to approve the Verizon/Frontier deal with stipulations that include the threat of financial forfeit for non-compliance. The stipulations, to which the companies, commission staff, and intervenor Comcast agreed in December, include a detailed protocol for Frontier and Comcast to follow in cutting over.
Ohio regulators should turn down the proposed sale of Verizon landlines to Frontier Communications as contrary to the public interest, said the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. In a brief filed Friday with the Public Utilities Commission, the unions said the agreement is “wholly inadequate” even with negotiated commitments. Ohio commission staff, the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, Verizon and Frontier agreed to the stipulation Dec. 8, a day before a scheduled commission hearing on the deal.
The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates asked the FCC to impose an additional financial condition on Verizon’s proposal to sell 4.8 million access lines in 14 states to Frontier. The deal would triple Frontier’s size. NASUCA asked the commission to also require Verizon to provide the $3.1 billion in financing that Frontier has identified as needed to complete the transaction.
Verizon and Frontier said their access-line deal “strengthens rural service and broadband investment, does not harm competition, and benefits consumers.” The comments came in an ex-parte letter disputing recent filings by EarthLink and the Communications Workers of America (CD Dec 17 p10). States are not “lining up in opposition to the transaction,” as the union contended, the carriers said. California, Nevada and South Carolina have approved the deal, and North Carolina and Pennsylvania have granted authorizations needed to separate Verizon properties involved in the deal, the companies said. Approval recommendations are pending in Oregon, Ohio and Arizona, and local franchise approvals needed to transfer Verizon video operation are “almost complete,” they said.
Regulators in California, Nevada and South Carolina approved Frontier’s acquisition of Verizon wireline operations with no dissent, the seller said late Thursday. Earlier, Frontier stockholders approved the company’s purchase of all of Verizon’s wireline operations in Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina and 10 other states, plus a few Verizon exchanges in California. The companies still need approval from the FCC and regulators in Arizona, Illinois, Ohio, Oregon, Washington and West Virginia. The Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department granted a request by the companies for early termination of the waiting period required under the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust act, Verizon said. Frontier has received cable-TV franchise approvals from 10 of 41 communities the company will serve in Oregon and Washington, Verizon said.