The Rural Cellular Association continued its fight against Verizon Communications (VZ) attempt to acquire spectrum assets from a handful of cable companies. The association, which represents virtually every mobile operator outside of Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility, said that if approved the deals would further limit competition across the mobile space.
Verizon announced late last year plans to acquire 122 1.7/2.1 GHz spectrum licenses (also known as AWS spectrum) covering 259 million potential customers for $3.6 billion from a consortium of cable companies, including Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. This announcement was followed weeks later by an agreement between Verizon and Cox to sell its 20 megahertz 1.7/2.1 GHz spectrum holdings to Verizon Wireless for $315 million. Both deals also included language that would allow the cable companies to resell Verizon Wireless’ services in their respective markets.
A number of companies came out against the proposed transactions citing the possibility of concentrating valuable spectrum assets into the hands of a single operator.
In its latest meneauver, RCA President and CEO Steve Berry yesterday testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights reiterating its stance that the deals would be bad for competition. Berry explained that Verizon Wireless is already sitting on vast spectrum resources in the 700 MHz and 1.7/2.1 GHz band that are currently unused.
“This transaction would transfer at least 20 megahertz of prime, unused, and nearly nationwide spectrum into the hands of a carrier that already holds as much as 44 megahertz of unused spectrum in many markets,” Berry said. “At the same time, many competitive carriers are approaching exhaustion of their current holdings. Verizon’s dominant control over other critical market inputs, including wireline backhaul, roaming for both voice and data services, and monopolize control over access to cutting-edge, interoperable devices, exacerbates this problem.”
Verizon Wireless is currently using a portion of its 700 MHz spectrum assets to support its LTE network, that has pushed past the 200 million covered potential customer mark. The carrier has said it expect to use the remaining 700 MHz and 1.7/2.1 GHz spectrum assets to further bolster that network and has opened up access to those spectrum assets to rural operators as part of its LTE in Rural America program.
The FCC earlier this year aligned the comment cycle for the proposed transactions, but noted the move was not made in an attempt to link them together. The proposed transactions are currently at day 63 of the proposed 180-day timeline.
Bored? Why not follow me on Twitter?
