It’s not fair to delay an FCC vote on the AT&T-BellSouth merger u...
It’s not fair to delay an FCC vote on the AT&T-BellSouth merger until Tunney Act review of the earlier SBC-AT&T merger is done, AT&T told the FCC in an Oct. 24 filing. That Tunney Act review raises “entirely distinct…
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legal and factual issues” involving a different merger, AT&T said. Delaying the later merger because the Tunney Act effort is pending “would harm consumers, be unfair to the parties and set a dangerous precedent for future Commission proceedings,” AT&T said. The filing offered a newsy tidbit, naming the 3 carriers waiting to use facilities divested in the SBC-AT&T merger: “AboveNet, Level 3 and Time Warner Telecom not only have signed acquisition agreements but have satisfied the Justice Department that they are ready, willing and able to use those assets to compete with AT&T.” In the consent decree leading to approval of the SBC-AT&T merger, DoJ required the companies to divest private line facilities in 383 buildings which no longer would have telecom competition as a result of SBC and AT&T merging. The Tunney Act review focuses on whether the divestiture requirement sufficiently remedied competitive concerns. This issue “has nothing to do with any question presented to the Commission in the AT&T/BellSouth proceeding,” AT&T said: “The Commission has declined to postpone resolution even of current license transfer proceedings pending the resolution of litigation involving the same transaction, let alone activities related to a different transaction involving different parties.” AT&T commented in response to opponents’ calls for delay of the AT&T-BellSouth merger while the Tunney Act review continues before U.S. Dist. Judge Emmet Sullivan.