AT&T Inc. offered to surrender some of its 2.5 GHz spectrum as part of a last-ditch attempt to secure approval of its $85 billion buyout of BellSouth Corp.
The telecom giant filed a letter of commitment with the Federal Communications Commission late Thursday in the hopes of satisfying two Democrats on the agency. The new concessions include a vow to observe Internet neutrality principles; an offer of stand-alone, high-speed Internet service for $20 a month; and a promise to freeze rates for “special access” customers including competitors and large businesses.
AT&T also committed to “assign and/or transfer to an unaffiliated third party” all its 2.5 GHz spectrum currently licensed to BellSouth within a year of the close of the buyout.
The pending telecom deal would combine AT&T’s 60-percent ownership and BellSouth’s 40-percent ownership of Cingular Wireless L.L.C., the top U.S. wireless operator. Mobile phone and wireless broadband companies are mostly concerned about issues outside Cingular ownership consolidation itself.
Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc., the third- and fourth-largest wireless carriers, and others want conditions on special-access lines controlled by AT&T and BellSouth. The dedicated links carry traffic from wireless base stations to the mobile-switching center or to the public switched telephone network. The Government Accountability Office concluded in a recent report competition in special-access rates is generally lacking in major U.S. cities.
Wireless broadband service provider Clearwire Corp., for its part, wants the FCC to impose conditions on 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz wireless broadband spectrum held by AT&T and BellSouth.
The offerings follow a week of negotiations and are expected to assuage the fears of Democratic commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein. Final approval requires a vote of the commissioners via computer, and could come as soon as today.
