FCC Upholds Bureau Order Giving AT&T 5G Licenses From FiberTower
Commissioners dismissed a petition for reconsideration by the Competitive Carriers Association and upheld a Wireless Bureau decision approving transfer of 514 39 GHz licenses from a subsidiary of FiberTower to AT&T. The commission said CCA didn’t have standing to make…
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the challenge. “CCA has not made any allegations of specific competitive harm that was the direct result of the Commission’s consent to the subject Transaction and has not established that it is aggrieved or injured by the Consent Order,” the FCC said. “It makes generalized statements about ‘expense to taxpayers, consumers and 5G competition’ and ‘unjust enrichment’ to FiberTower, neither of which demonstrates how it, or its members, are aggrieved or injured by the consent to the Transaction.” The bureau authorized AT&T to take control of high-band licenses as part of its buy of FiberTower in February (see 1802080055). In April, CCA asked the FCC to overturn the decision (see 1804030032). “Today’s decision is disappointing, and makes it even more important that the FCC continues work to make millimeter wave spectrum available to all carriers at auction as soon as possible,” CCA President Steve Berry told us. “High-frequency millimeter-wave spectrum provides a real opportunity for competitive carriers to utilize valuable, limited spectrum to deploy the advanced telecommunications services that consumers want and demand, especially those living in rural and remote areas.”