Public Knowledge Sees Benefits To Cable Spectrum Sale
Public Knowledge Sees Benefits To Cable Spectrum Sale
Public Knowledge Sees Benefits To Cable Spectrum Sale

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    The following is
    attributed to Harold Feld, legal director of Public Knowledge:

    “On the one hand,
    it is good news that Verizon is paying $3.6 billion to buy useful
    spectrum from the cable company consortium. Spectrum is better held
    in the hands of those who will use it, as opposed to those who don’t.

    “The transaction
    also shows how relatively cheaply more spectrum can be acquired by
    those who need it. The purchase price is about one-tenth of the
    amount AT&T wants to pay for T-Mobile to theoretically solve
    AT&T’s spectrum shortage.

    “At the same time, we have some
    questions and concerns about the transaction’s side deal. Consumers
    have benefited from head-to-head competition between Comcast and Time
    Warner (the major partners in SpectrumCo) and Verizon FIOS. If this
    deal becomes a way for the companies to coordinate their product
    offerings to avoid competition, or a way to work together to exclude
    other competitors such as DISH from the mobile and wireless data
    market, that would obviously be a bad outcome.

     “The Federal Communications
    Commission will need to review this transaction. Even with our
    general approval of spectrum being used, the Commission will also
    need to review the transaction against its ‘spectrum screen,’ which
    measures spectrum concentration rather than market share, to ensure
    that there is enough leftover spectrum in every market for vigorous
    competition.”