CCA and T-Mobile disagree with AT&T’s 700 MHz purchase

[Brent D'Alessandro]

AT&T have said that T-Mobile and the Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) are challenging it’s purchase of Lower 700 MHz spectrum without any reason as to why. T-Mobile claims that AT&T bought it simply to take more low-band spectrum.

Joan Marsh, AT&T’s vice president of federal regulatory said:

“AT&T’s ownership of 700 MHz B Block licenses is wholly uncontroversial — we purchased many in the 700 MHz auction and have been enhancing our B block footprint through small deals for some time,”
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He went on to say how the spectrum was purchased to “provide AT&T with a sufficient position to support a 10 x 10 MHz LTE deployment in 700 MHz in the relevant markets”. A 10 MHz configuration is more spectrally efficient and has a larger throughput than a 5 x 5 MHz deployment. The FCC has also endorsed this type of thing before.

Marsh said T-Mobile offered no real argument to oppose the deal.

“without offering any cogent argument or justification, CCA and T-Mobile have opposed the deal, arguing that the Commission should simply prohibit any incremental low-band spectrum aggregation by AT&T and Verizon. Period. They essentially assert that low band spectrum transactions should be deemed presumptively unlawful for any company named AT&T or Verizon.”
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The FCC came out with new rules last year stating that if a carrier gained control of one-third of the spectrum below 1 GHz in a given market they will be under enhanced review.

Marsh commented on the new rules and what CCA and T-Mobile said:

“With this argument, CCA and T-Mobile fundamentally misconstrue the FCC’s new enhanced factor analysis,” and “Far from any presumptive standard, the Commission has retained its fact-based, case-by-case approach to transaction reviews, an approach that has worked well for many years in that it balances public interest benefits against concrete competitive harms. In the enhanced review, the Commission now considers low band aggregation as an enhanced factor that warrants heightened scrutiny. And given the detailed information the Commission has sought on this transaction, it is clear the Commission is taking the heightened scrutiny standard very seriously.”
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CCA President Steve Berry was not too impressed with AT&T and said to FierceWireless:

“Despite being given every opportunity imaginable, AT&T has yet to meet its burden of proving why it needs so much low-band spectrum in rural markets and how this transaction significantly benefits the public interest,”
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Source: AT&T, FierceWireless




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