Verizon and UScellular Seek FCC Approval of Spectrum Transaction
Verizon and UScellular urged the FCC to approve their proposed spectrum deal, as the regional carrier seeks to sell off most of its spectrum holdings. In a filing posted Wednesday in docket 25-192, they jointly responded to opponents of the transaction. Verizon agreed in October to buy UScellular’s 850 MHz, AWS and PCS licenses for $1 billion (see 2410180004), a deal various groups have opposed (see 2507080053).
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“Petitioners do not seriously dispute the Transaction’s benefits to the public interest, while the alleged harms they conjure are speculative, unsupported by evidence, irrelevant to the Transaction at issue, or all of the above,” the companies said. “The Transaction will benefit the public interest by allowing Verizon to put the UScellular spectrum licenses at issue to use expeditiously and enhance network coverage and quality accordingly.”
UScellular and Verizon said the two petitions to deny, by public interest groups and the Rural Wireless Association, respectively, don’t detail transaction-specific harms. “The generalized harms about which both speculate are duplicative of those that Petitioners have already (and, so far, unsuccessfully) asserted in opposing UScellular’s transaction with T-Mobile,” they said.
UScellular, meanwhile, responded to lawyers Mark O’Connor and Sara Leibman, who asked the FCC not to act on the transaction, raising False Claims Act allegations against UScellular and designated entities, including King Street.
“Relators repeat the same meritless claims that they made in opposing the transaction between UScellular and T-Mobile … that UScellular lacks basic qualifications to hold and assign licenses,” UScellular said. “The Commission flatly rejected those claims in its approval of that transaction … concluding that ‘we do not find there is currently a material question of fact regarding UScellular’s basic qualifications to be a Commission licensee.’”
The FCC Wireless Bureau recently approved the larger T-Mobile-UScellular transaction, while DOJ said it wouldn’t oppose the deal despite concerns about the effect on wireless competition (see 2507110045).
The RWA notified the FCC on Wednesday it will ask the FCC to review the bureau order approving the T-Mobile transaction. “The Application for Review will challenge the adopted Memorandum Opinion and Order by citing various legal and factual errors,” the group said. RWA also countered Verizon's claims that its outside counsel shouldn’t be allowed to view confidential data filed in the proceeding (see 2507110049). RWA noted its plans to challenge the bureau order. “Accordingly, Verizon’s assertion that the request for access is moot is incorrect,” RWA said.
T-Mobile officials announced on Wednesday the UScellular transaction is expected to close next week (see 2507230066).