WASHINGTON-The fact that MCI Worldcom Inc. will acquire Sprint Corp.’s extensive mobile-phone network if its proposed merger is approved was completely ignored at a forum held last week by the Federal Communications Commission’s Common Carrier Bureau.
The forum instead focused on the impacts on the long-distance and Internet markets.
The MCI WorldCom-Sprint deal, largely driven by MCI’s desire to add wireless to its mix of bundled services, requires approvals from the FCC and the Department of Justice. The FCC does not officially review mergers but does review the transfer of licenses considered to be a key part of any merger. An MCI/Sprint merger would give the new company more than 4 million personal communications services subscribers and 1.7 million paging/advanced messaging customers.
Wireless, albeit fixed, was a topic of the discussion as a method by which the merged entity-to be known as Worldcom-could enter the local exchange market.
“I will emphasize one market and multiple pathways. The significant benefit from this merger [will be] a stronger competitor to enter the local markets … we intend to do this in a number of pathways … broadband wireless offers another opportunity in a very small universe to provide another facilities operator in the last-mile residential market,” said Jonathan B. Sallet, MCI Worldcom chief policy counsel.
This benefit, however, was disputed by the FCC’s Chief Economist William Rogerson, who suggested that if the merger were prohibited, one of the parties would sell its Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service licenses to the other. “I just don’t see in any way, shape or form that this is a merger-specific benefit,” Rogerson said.
It has been estimated that MCI and Sprint each own MMDS licenses that cover half the country.
