Background: Verizon announced today that it would sell some of its
wireless licenses if the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the
company’s plan to buy spectrum from major cable companies and to have marketing
agreements with the cable companies.
The following is attributed to Harold Feld,
legal director of Public Knowledge:
“There is less than meets the eye to
Verizon’s spectrum sale. At the
end of the day, Verizon and the cable companies will still have created a
cartel in which Verizon will rule the air for wireless broadband and cable will
offer the only widespread true high-speed landline Internet services.
“Verizon is trying to use the mere offer of
a spectrum sale tempt the FCC and the Justice Department into approving the
deal with the cable companies, and the agencies should resist the
temptation. Recent history of such
spectrum sell-offs shows that when Verizon and AT&T sell off spectrum, it’s
Verizon who buys AT&T’s, and vice versa. Having AT&T buy Verizon spectrum in this instance would
do nothing to change to help consumers.
“Even if AT&T were barred from bidding,
the amount of spectrum that other companies would receive might increase their
capacities marginally. At the end
of the day, however the Verizon sell-off turns out, the gap between the biggest
companies and the rest of the industry would grow and the competitive world
would shrink even more. Consumers
would again be the losers.”