The FCC has added 21 days to its 180-day review of US telco Verizon’s US$3.6bn plan to acquire AWS spectrum from several cablecos, following filing delays. According to an FCC filing on 1 May, the 103rd day of its review, Verizon and cable companies…
The FCC has added 21 days to its 180-day review of US telco Verizon’s US$3.6bn plan to acquire AWS spectrum from several cablecos, following filing delays.
According to an FCC filing on 1 May, the 103rd day of its review, Verizon and cable companies including Comcast and Time Warner failed to submit responsive documents by the regulator’s 22 March deadline.
“Indeed, nearly two-thirds of the responsive documents the applicants have submitted to date were submitted after 6 April, and more than half of the applicants’ total production was submitted after 19 April,” said the regulator.
In addition, these submissions had been criticised by other parties for being difficult to access and understand. The critics had reportedly called on the FCC to stop the clock on its review period altogether until they are addressed.
But the FCC said the applicants had pledged on 30 April to “go beyond the requirements of the Commission’s orders in this matter by taking additional steps to facilitate third-party review of the record materials”.
It added: “We anticipate that these steps will assist access to the productions.”
Verizon’s mobile operator rivals have strongly criticised the proposed transaction, which will see it snap up unused AWS spectrum bands that are currently held by local cable companies. Under the proposed deal, Verizon would sell off some of its existing 700MHz frequencies to other operators. However, the move has been criticised by mobile operators such as T-Mobile USA, which claims it is an attempt to foreclose competitors from acquiring AWS frequencies, which would be more readily available than the 700MHz spectrum.
