Posts Tagged ‘ATT’
FCC Grants Withdrawal of AT&T/T-Mobile Applications but Releases Scathing Report on Merger
Posted on November 30, 2011The FCC has released an Order granting an earlier request by AT&T and Deutsche Telekom to have their applications in support of a merger withdrawn without prejudice. However, in a bold procedural move, the Commission took the release of the Order as an opportunity to publish a lengthy report critical of the proposed merger that FCC staffers had been working on for several months. While the Order allows AT&T and DT to re-file new applications at a later date, and the docket remains open, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski ultimately decided to release the 157 page report, entitled “Staff Findings and Analysis”, which contains non-confidential as well as redacted information and a comprehensive analysis of the proposed merger. The report was originally drafted to be released with a hearing designation order before AT&T and DT decided to pull their applications. According to the report, AT&T and DT “have failed to carry their burden of proving that the proposed transaction, on balance, will serve the public interest” and, were the deal allowed to proceed, “significant harms to competition are likely to result, primarily in the form of increased prices for consumers, reduced incentives for innovation, and decreased consumer choice.” Chairman Genachowski also announced that the internal report would be forwarded to Judge Huvelle who is overseeing the DOJ’s antitrust case against AT&T. A copy of the Order and the report are available for download from the FCC’s website.
FCC Questions Tower Companies on AT&T/T-Mobile Deal
Posted on July 27, 2011The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau has sent letters to American Tower Corporation, Crown Castle International Corporation, and SBA Communications Corporation, the country’s three largest tower companies, asking each of them to provide cell tower information that would “assist the Commission in determining whether granting the applications would serve the public interest.” Specifically, the FCC has asked each tower company to submit a spreadsheet with information concerning all towers in their possession and listing the following details in separate columns: (1) tower number; (2) tower name; (3) type of tower structure; (4) ground elevation; (5) structure height; (6) tower address; (7) license area name by BTA, MTA and CMA; (8) lattitude; (9) longitude; (10) the tower’s total capacity for carriers; (11) the current tenants on each tower; (12) the current number of vacancies on each tower; (13) the height and width of all antennas on each tower; (14) the tenant cost for expansion on each tower; and (15) any additional comments about a tower or its associated expansion costs for new tenants. All of the tower companies have until Friday, August 5 to furnish the requested information.
Senator Kohl Urges DOJ, FCC To Stop AT&T/T-Mobile Merger
Posted on July 22, 2011On Wednesday, July 20th Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer rights sent a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and DOJ head Attorney General Eric Holder, asserting that the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile “would likely cause substantial harm to competition and consumers, would be contrary to antitrust law and not in the public interest, and therefore should be blocked by [those] agencies.” That same day, Rick Kaplan, the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Chief, issued a letter to AT&T informing the country’s second largest wireless carrier that because it is now “expressly relying upon” new models to justify the proposed merger, and because those models have not yet been made available to the FCC, the agency has stopped its informal 180 day “shot clock” effective July 20, 2011 and will not resume its review of the merger until such time as “the new evidence has been provided to us in a format and with sufficient explanation and back-up information, to adequately evaluate it.”
Assistant Attorney General on Antitrust To Leave DOJ
Posted on July 7, 2011Christine A. Varney, currently Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, has announced that she will step away from the agency effective August 5, 2011. There is speculation that Mrs. Varney will return to the private sector as an antitrust litigation partner with the law firm of Cravath, Swain and Moore, a firm with a long history in mergers and acquisitions. The announcement comes as Assistant AG Varney’s staff is scrutinizing the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile. Soon after announcing her departure, Varney told reporters she did not envision any disruptions in the agency’s activities and said that the “strong team” remaining in the antitrust division will apply “the same level of attention” to AT&T/T-Mobile and other ongoing deals.
FCC Revises Information Requests to AT&T, T-Mobile and Competitors As Part of Merger Review
Posted on June 29, 2011The FCC has sent letters to AT&T, T-Mobile, Cellular South, Leap, MetroPCS, Sprint, US Cellular and Verizon Wireless asking each carrier to amend and in some cases add to the information originally requested by the Commission as part of its review of the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger. In the Commission’s original information request to all the major national and regional mobile wireless providers, the companies were required to submit detailed subscriber information in a searchable database format furnished by the FCC. As part of the modified information request, the two merging companies were asked to add a “Billing-Ports.csv” table and a new attachment table for “Device_Sales.csv.” Additionally, all of the competing mobile wireless providers were asked to remove the “Billing_Additions.csv” table, add tables for “Billing_Ports.csv”, “Device_Sales.csv.”, and “Network_Quality.csv”, and finally add a field for “total backhaul costs by CMA” to the “Subscriber_Data.csv” table. All of these revised information requests are due to the FCC by Thursday, July 7, 2011.
DOJ Antitrust Division Releases Policy Guide For Merger Remedies
Posted on June 22, 2011The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (DOJ) has released a revised policy guide intended to provide guidance in its work analyzing proposed remedies for mergers. The DOJ’s remedy guidelines have not been updated since 2004. DOJ has revised the guidelines, in part, to reflect the massive globalization that has altered the competitive landscape in recent years and also to address confusion on the intent of policy provisions in the 2004 release. When determining whether a proposed merger is illegal, it is DOJ’s responsibility to “consider a broad range of potential remedies in ensuring appropriate and effective remedial relief.” The revised guidelines also note that “a successful merger remedy must effectively preserve competition in the relevant market.” The revised remedy guidelines will apply to both horizontal mergers and vertical mergers. Among the available remedies that DOJ will consider in protecting competition are conduct provisions, structural provisions (including divestitures), the sale of physical assets, intellectual property rights or licensing rights, and in the most extreme cases, blocking the proposed merger. DOJ also reiterated that one of its goals in assessing available remedies “is preserving competition, not determining outcomes or picking winners and losers.” DOJ also noted that “the remedy should focus on preserving competition, not protecting individual competitors.” DOJ is currently reviewing the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile and it will use these revised guidelines in its merger analysis. A copy of the revised guidelines can be found on DOJ’s website.