WASHINGTON-Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), chairman of the Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, has
introduced legislation to speed up Federal Communications Commission review of telecom mergers.
Two deals
before the FCC-the proposed $53 billion Bell Atlantic Corp.-GTE Corp. merger and $61 billion SBC Communications
Inc.-Ameritech Corp. merger-have the potential to further consolidate the wireless industry.
Justice is expected to
rule on at least one of the two pending mega-mergers in the next few months. Meanwhile, state regulators and civil
rights activists continue to weigh in on the proposed deals.
At the same time, organized labor has given its blessing
to the planned Bell Atlantic-GTE and SBC-Ameritech.
DeWine’s bill would require the FCC to act on merger-
related applications for license transfers in cases where no documents are sought. If the FCC makes one or more
requests for data from merger applicants, the agency has 180 days to act on the deal after receiving the
information.
Despite the lack of local residential competition in the three years since the enactment of the 1996
telecom act, Congress does not appear anxious to re-open or rewrite the law.
Lawmakers, seeing that litigation has
run its course and that competition for business customers is on the rise, are willing to let the telecom act play
out.
In the meantime, they want the FCC to move faster on proposed mergers that proponents predict will promote
competition but that critics claim will chill it.
“While these mergers require careful scrutiny, they must be
evaluated in a timely fashion in order to allow the merging parties and their competitors to move forward,” said
DeWine, whose panel held a hearing Feb. 25 to re-examine the telecom act.
“Our bill says to the FCC:
Approve it, reject it, or require conditions. But don’t sit on it. Move in a reasonable time period,” said
Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), ranking minority member of the antitrust subcommittee and a co-author of the bill.
At the
hearing, support to keep the telecom act intact and let it work was voiced by former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, FCC
Chairman William Kennard, Justice Department antitrust chief Joel Klein and Larry Pressler, who authored the telecom
reform bill as a former Senate Commerce Committee chairman.
Hundt said approval of the calling-party-pays
approach for mobile phone service would go a long way toward making it a substitute for local landline telephone
service.
