NEW YORK-“The SBC (Communications Inc.)-Ameritech (Corp.) merger will provide
outstanding opportunities for minorities to get into the wireless business,” said Thomas A. Hart Jr. on Thursday at
the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition’s conference on “Building Trading Partnerships to Expand the
Marketplace.”
“SBC-Ameritech will divest two wireless properties, in Chicago and St. Louis,”
said Hart, a partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm of Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P.
“Discussions are
under way, and we are optimistic this will happen, to involve significant minority participation in one or more of those
spin-offs.”
In Chicago and St. Louis, the wireless properties of the merged SBC-Ameritech would exceed the
Federal Communications Commission’s 45-megahertz spectrum-cap rules, designed to combat monopolies in wireless
markets.