FCC Approves T-Mobile Venture With EQT to Buy Lumos
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Friday approved a fiber deal proposed last year by T-Mobile, a venture with private equity firm EQT to buy fiber-to-the-home provider Lumos (see 2404250047). T-Mobile said it would invest $950 million for a 50% stake in the joint venture. “We find, upon consideration of the record, that a grant of the Application will serve the public interest, convenience, and necessity,” the bureau said. “The proposed transaction will not result in a reduction of competition.” Lumos provides telecom and other services to “more than 300,000 homes and businesses across Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina,” the order said.
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The deal faced limited opposition, the bureau noted. One commenter, Neel Chauhan, asked that as a condition of approval, T-Mobile be required to share connections with other ISPs. “The Commission has previously stated that it ‘will not impose conditions to remedy pre-existing harms or harms that are unrelated to the transaction,’” the bureau said. “We find that the addition of T-Mobile as an ‘anchor tenant’ and co-investor in a joint venture that will own Licensees’ network, post-transaction, has no direct bearing on its network access.”