Posts Tagged ‘Competition’
FCC Seeks Updated Data for 16th Annual Mobile Wireless Competition Report
Posted on March 14, 2012The FCC has released a Public Notice requesting updated, year-end 2011 data and information on mobile wireless competition that will augment data and information already submitted by parties in late 2011 for the creation of the Commission’s Sixteen Annual Report on the State of Competition in Mobile Wireless, including Commercial Mobile Radio Services (Sixteenth Report). On November 3, 2011, the Commission had released an earlier public notice seeking data and information on marketplace competition for all of 2010 and part of 2011. The Commission has determined that the Sixteenth Report will include data and information for the full years of 2010 and 2011 and accordingly it wishes to refresh the record. The data and information requested will mirror what was originally sought in the earlier public notice. Specifically, the FCC seeks comment on the four separate categories: (1) industry structure; (2) provider conduct; (3) market performance; and (4) consumer behavior. The Sixteenth Report will also examine “input” market segments such as spectrum, infrastructure and backhaul as well as “downstream” or “edge” market segments such as devices, operating systems, applications, and mobile commerce. Comments are due Friday, April 13, 2012 and reply comments are due Monday, April 30, 2012.
FCC Delays Verizon-Cable Company Pleading Cycle; Requests More Information
Posted on March 9, 2012The Federal Communications Commission has issued an Order extending the deadline for parties submitting reply comments in the proceeding concerning the Commission’s review of applications involving the sale of spectrum from Comcast, Time Warner, Bright House Networks (collectively SpectrumCo) and Cox to Verizon Wireless. In addition to the sale of AWS spectrum across much of the country, Verizon Wireless and the cable companies have also entered into various commercial agreements – including resale agreements, agency agreements, and a joint venture agreement – that have come under scrutiny from regulators, competitors and consumers. In an effort to expedite the Commission’s review of the spectrum sale, SpectrumCo, Cox and Verizon Wireless submitted to the FCC copies of the various commercial agreements, but they left portions of those agreements redacted, even in submissions to Commission staffers and opposing parties that signed confidentiality protection orders. Parties who had filed petitions to deny the transaction and comments in the proceeding filed a motion seeking an extension and requesting access to the redacted information. The Order stipulates that SpectrumCo, Cox and Verizon Wireless submit to the FCC and other parties under the protective orders updated versions of the commercial agreements with previously redacted sections left in full. The Commission also sent request-for-information letters to all of the individual cable companies, SpectrumCo and Verizon Wireless seeking background information and analysis on aspects of both the proposed spectrum sale and commercial agreements. The updated, unredacted commercial agreements requested by the Commission are due by Monday, March 12, 2012 and responses to the request-for-information letters are due no later than Thursday, March 22, 2012. The new extended deadline for replies to oppositions to petitions to deny is now Monday, March 26, 2012.
White House Nominates Baer To Top Antitrust Post
Posted on February 8, 2012President Barack Obama has nominated William Baer, an attorney with Arnold & Porter, to lead the Department of Justice’s antitrust division. Mr. Baer, if confirmed by the U.S. Senate, would replace the departing Sharis Pozen, the acting assistant attorney general for antitrust. Ms. Pozen, who recently announced that she would depart from DOJ in April 2012, assumed the top antitrust spot after her predecessor, Christine Varney, departed the agency to become a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. William Baer is a former director of the Federal Trade Commission’s competition bureau and he has handled many high-profile antitrust projects while at Arnold & Porter. The last year has seen DOJ’s antitrust department successfully stop the proposed AT&T takover of T-Mobile USA, and it is currently reviewing the Google acquisition of Motorola Mobility.
FCC Seeks Comment on Petition to Reverse Verizon Forbearance
Posted on November 11, 2011The FCC has requested comment on a petition filed by several competitors and trade associations that asks the Commission to reverse in part the forbearance granted to Verizon in 2006 by operation of law when the Commission failed to affirmatively act on Verizon’s forbearance petition. As a result of the FCC’s failure to act, Verizon was granted forbearance from a number of regulatory obligations, including BOC-specific Computer Inquiry requirements. The petitioners seek to reverse the forbearance to the extent that it excuses Verizon from regulatory requirements applicable to similarly situated competitors for non-TDM services such as Ethernet, ATM and SONET. Parties may file comments on or before December 20, 2011. Reply comments are due January 19, 2012.
Judge Orders AT&T/DOJ Settlement Plans, Hearing Date
Posted on September 9, 2011Federal Judge Ellen S. Huvelle of the United States District Court in Washington, DC has issued an order in the case filed by the Department of Justice in its bid to enjoin AT&T from acquiring T-Mobile. The first part of the order requires DOJ, AT&T and Deutsche Telekom, the parent company of T-Mobile, to file a joint scheduling and management plan by Friday, September 16 that governs and facilitates “the just, speedy and inexpensive determination of all pretrial matters and the trial of this case.” The second part of the order requires DOJ and AT&T to come to court on Wednesday, September 21, 2011 and “be prepared to discuss the prospects of a settlement.” On Wednesday, August 31, DOJ filed a suit to block the AT&T/T-Mobile merger and on Tuesday, September 6, Sprint Nextel filed a similar suit seeking to enjoin the two companies from merging. Both cases will be presided over by Judge Huvelle.
Sprint Follows DOJ Lead, Sues To Stop T-Mobile-AT&T Deal
Posted on September 7, 2011Sprint Nextel has filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile. This move by the country’s third largest carrier comes on the heels of the Department of Justice’s similar lawsuit filed on August 31. The Sprint suit, which was filed in the same court and assigned to the same judge hearing the DOJ suit, alleges that the elimination of T-Mobile from the marketplace would violate Section 7 of the Clayton Act. In a prepared statement released after the suit was filed, Sprint argued that if the transaction is allowed to proceed “a combined AT&T and T-Mobile would have the ability to use its control over backhaul, roaming and spectrum, and its increased market position to exclude competitors, raise their costs, restrict their access to handsets, damage their businesses and ultimately to lessen competition.” Sprint also asserted that the removal of T-Mobile would allow AT&T and Verizon to control at least 90 percent of wireless sector profits while simultaneously causing higher prices for consumers and reducing innovation.