Groups Oppose Verizon's Buy of UScellular Spectrum
Various groups opposed Verizon’s proposed purchase of UScellular spectrum licenses, as the regional carrier seeks to sell off most of its spectrum holdings. The Verizon deal is contingent on a larger transaction with T-Mobile, in which it's buying “substantially all” of UScellular’s wireless operations for about $4.4 billion (see 2405280047). Verizon agreed in October to buy UScellular’s 850 MHz, AWS and PCS licenses for $1 billion (see 2410180004). Petitions to deny were due at the FCC on Monday in docket 25-192.
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Public Knowledge, New America's Open Technology Institute and the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society jointly asked the FCC to deny the deal. “Applicants simply have not demonstrated that the transaction, as proposed, will not cause harm to the public interest,” they said.
The sale will “significantly increase spectrum concentration in many of the states where UScellular is present and where UScellular currently competes with the top three wireless carriers,” the groups added. The two companies didn’t “discuss the effect of this transaction on consumer prices, service availability, and service quality with any level of verifiable evidence.”
The Rural Wireless Association also opposed the transaction, again saying it would be harmful to smaller carriers’ ability to find roaming partners in much of the country (see 2507070030). The likely effect would be higher prices for consumers, the group said. Verizon’s spectrum holdings post-transaction “would exceed the FCC’s spectrum screen in hundreds of counties, necessitating an ‘enhanced factor’ review by the FCC” and “limit[ing] rural carriers’ access to essential spectrum -- raising barriers to competition.”
Lawyers Mark O’Connor and Sara Leibman asked the FCC not to act on the transaction, raising False Claims Act allegations against UScellular and designated entities, including King Street. They raised similar concerns in May about AT&T’s proposed buy of UScellular spectrum (see 2505230016).