A New Jersey government agency representing consumers wants to block Verizon...
A New Jersey government agency representing consumers wants to block Verizon Wireless from buying the advanced wireless spectrum of four cable operators. The New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel wants the AWS licenses auctioned to the highest bidder, it said…
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in an FCC filing seeking to block Verizon Wireless from buying licenses from Cox and SpectrumCo, owned by Bright House Networks, Comcast and Time Warner Cable. “The Applicants portray the transactions as straightforward re-assignments of unused spectrum licenses, using the secondary market as a way to link various sellers (in this instance, a group that includes the nation’s largest cable companies) and a buyer (the nation’s largest wireless carrier),” the division said. “Although no customers are being migrated from one carrier to another carrier, the potential anti-competitive consequences of the two applications could harm the nation’s consumers.” Don’t “reward” cable companies “for stockpiling spectrum (with appreciation of more than one billion dollars relative to their original purchase prices for their licenses),” the division said. The commission should require the licenses be returned, said the division, which has weighed in on other FCC proceedings seeking more safeguards than cable operators had proposed. Friday’s filing is in docket 12-4 (http://xrl.us/bmsxr6).