FCC Restarts Clock on Pending Merger Between AT&T, T-Mobile

The clock is ticking again on the Federal Communications Commission's review of the pending merger between AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA.

The agency had stopped its informal clock for reviewing the $39 billion deal on July 20 to give the parties time to submit new material about efficiencies made possible by the merger.

The FCC, which considers whether telecom transactions are in the public interest, aims to complete merger reviews in 180 days—not counting the time the clock is stopped. That makes this day 83 of the AT&T deal, which was announced in March 2011.

“We have had several meetings with AT&T regarding the models and have posed a number of detailed questions concerning their construction and the assumptions they contain,” wrote Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Chief Rick Kaplan to AT&T outside counsel Richard Rosen, a partner at Arnold & Porter.

The letter continued, “We have now received AT&T's answers to our specific questions as well as AT&T's confirmation that it believes our record is complete with respect to the models. Our understanding is that, unless specifically prompted by a request from the Commission or the Department of Justice, AT&T will not be submitting any further revisions to the models. Based on this understanding, we are restarting the informal clock effective today.”

AT&T welcomed the news. “We are pleased that the FCC has restarted the clock and we are confident that the commission will move expeditiously to complete its review of our merger with T-Mobile,” said Bob Quinn, AT&T’s senior vice president for federal regulatory issues, in a statement.

Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn, an opponent of the deal, praised the FCC for restarting the clock as well. “We are glad the Commission has decided that AT&T has had more than enough chances to make its case, and is restarting the clock on the merits. Now that AT&T has conceded that it has played its last card, it is time for the FCC and the DoJ to bring this proceeding to a close by rejecting the merger,” she said in a news release.

Comments

[Andros Pelecanos]

I somewhat agree with you there J Fernandez.

Complete consolidation of markets and industries is likely to have a net negative in the long run. With that being true, I think regulators need to wise up and create mechanisms that can help to more effectively combat the trend where there are fewer and fewer corporations growing larger and larger in influence and capital.

It's a net negative because the larger a corpororation grows the more a nation depends on their success. The more this is true then the more the opposite is true too, that failure (or bankruptcy) slowly stops becoming an option.

And when the balance sheets show an impending bankruptcy looming, that's when regulators will realise that since failure is not an option, they'll have to bail-out the corporation. And what that amounts to is the sponsoring and rescue of bad practices and bad decisions.

Being forced to sponsor a failure has a term: Liability.

Nations have to make sure that they're never forced into a position where they have no choice but to sink funds of future generations into liabilities. It's a vicious downward cycle where the best way to get out of it is to not get into it in the first place.

Saying no to this merger is a start!

[J Fernandez]

I am opposed to this merger in an era where jobs are scarce another huge company seeks to force government regulators to approve their making a move which reduces competition and jobs, opens the door for price increases in another booming industry, telecommunications.

I recall when AT & T bought Pacific Bell here in California and eventually not only moved out of the state to Texas, I believe, but in its wake took a direct hit at the Communications Union that was thriving, as well as the thousands of jobs.

I am very supportive of progress and expansion, but not when it is wrong-headed public policy and makes the rich and powerful richer and more powerful at the expense of the public. Enough of this!

American politicians and governmental regulators need to get a clue, step up and start to function on behalf of the public and the people of this country, rather than making decisions which solely benefit their own agendas!