AT&T’s rivals press US regulator to block its 700 MHz acquisition

Wireless carrier AT&T said on Wednesday that rival T-Mobile and the Competitive Carrier Association (CCA) has been asking the FCC to block its acquisition of 700MHz spectrum without having a good reason to do so. 

The transaction would give AT&T two Lower 700MHz B Block licenses from Club 42 CM Limited Partnership. With the closing of the deal, AT&T would be able to improve its LTE network in certain markets by using a 10MHz X 10MHz configuration which would allow the US' second largest mobile operator to carry more signals, with faster service.

According to AT&T, the FCC had ruled in favour of transactions that resulted in the deployment of 10MHz x 10MHz, saying that they were in public interest.

AT&T said on its blog that T-Mobile acts as though "low band spectrum transactions should be deemed presumptively unlawful for any company named AT&T or Verizon."

According to AT&T, the deal had been pending for over a year, and that it was time for it to close. CCA president Steve Berry said that AT&T "has not complied with the standards of review and has presented no real evidence of increased public interest".

Kathleen Ham, T-Mobile's senior vice president for government affairs, said that "AT&T simply wants to grab more low-band spectrum to depress competition, reduce investment and stifle innovation, " phonearena.com reported.

According to AT&T, the FCC had found that deals that allowed for 10x10MHz LTE rollouts served the public interest, its deal therefore needed to go through. However, the CCA and T-Mobile did not agree.

According to CCA president Steve Berry AT&T still had not proven ''why it needs so much low-band spectrum in rural markets and how this transaction significantly benefits the public interest.''

Berry told FierceWireless that the FCC's enhanced factor analysis,  which was meant to give an ''enhanced review'' to transactions that resulted in one carrier gaining control of one-third of low-band spectrum in a market was not doing what it was meant to do.

''These transactions, in addition to AT&T's buying spree before the enhanced factor analysis was created, make for a dangerous case of further spectrum aggregation into the hands of one of the largest national carriers,'' Berry adds.