Don't Consider AT&T Buy of UScellular Licenses in Isolation, Groups Urge FCC
The Rural Wireless Association and other groups asked the FCC to examine AT&T’s proposed purchase of 700 MHz and 3.45 GHz licenses from UScellular in the broader context of the U.S. wireless market. The groups met virtually with aides to Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioner Anna Gomez, according to a filing posted Monday in docket 25-150.
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The FCC should consider the AT&T deal in relationship to agreements by T-Mobile and Verizon to buy other spectrum from UScellular, said the filing, which was also signed by the Communications Workers of America, Public Knowledge and New America’s Open Technology Institute.
The three transactions “represent a significant restructuring of the mobile wireless market and effectuate the exit of UScellular as a mobile wireless carrier,” the groups said. “Reviewing the AT&T/UScellular transaction in isolation, as solely a spectrum assignment, would obscure the cumulative competitive harms of the transaction and undermine the FCC’s ability to conduct a meaningful public interest analysis.”
The groups noted UScellular’s important role as a roaming partner for smaller carriers, having “historically worked well with rural carriers and engaged in reciprocal roaming agreements with commercially reasonable roaming rates for rural carriers.”