WASHINGTON—AT&T Inc. offered to conduct a series of wireless broadband trials as part of a package of concessions aimed at winning Federal Communications Commission approval of its proposed $69 billion purchase of BellSouth Corp.
AT&T outlined the offer late Friday in an FCC filing, after Democratic Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein and two telecom firms raised questions about 11th hour merger negotiations that AT&T said were initiated by Chairman Kevin Martin’s staff and Thomas Navin, chief of the commission’s wireline bureau.
The GOP-led FCC twice last week postponed votes on the AT&T-BellSouth merger, with the proceeding coming totally unhinged Friday after Copps and Adelstein asked Martin to halt a planned vote that day and to put AT&T’s proposal out for public comment. Martin agreed, directing parties to provide feedback on AT&T’s proposed conditions by Oct. 24. Martin said the FCC could vote on the deal at the open meeting on Nov. 3, just days before midterm elections in which Democrats hope to reclaim the House and possibly the Senate.
Consumer groups, Democratic lawmakers, Sprint Nextel Corp., Clearwire Corp. and others have urged the FCC to impose conditions on wireless broadband spectrum, special access and aspects of the merger as a prerequisite to clearing the deal.
AT&T said the newly merged company would launch 10 trials of wireless broadband Internet service in the 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands by the end of 2007, with at least five of the trial conducted in BellSouth’s territory. AT&T also promised to donate $1 million to further public-safety communications. The conditions on special access lines proposed by AT&T appear to fall short of requirements the FCC and Justice Department imposed on the AT&T-SBC Communications Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.-MCI Inc. mergers. Those mergers were approved by the FCC and Justice Department last year, but are currently under review by a federal judge here.
AT&T and BellSouth argue they should not be forced to divest wireless broadband spectrum, given the availability of frequencies and control of such spectrum by competitors—particularly Sprint Nextel.
Telecom analysts predict the AT&T-BellSouth hook-up eventually will win backing from the FCC, with conditions similar to those attached to previous two telecom mega-mergers.
