FCC Approves AT&T Purchase of UScellular Spectrum Following DEI Commitments
The FCC Wireless Bureau on Wednesday approved AT&T’s proposed purchase of 700 MHz and 3.45 GHz licenses from the former UScellular for $1 billion. The approval came after AT&T agreed to end any trace of diversity, equity and inclusion in its hiring and other practices and made concessions to NATE (see 2512020061). The FCC has also quickly moved on proposed transactions from Verizon and T-Mobile after they offered similar concessions. In each case, approval has been through staff orders rather than commissioner action.
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The bureau conducted an enhanced review in two of the 221 cellular market areas covered, based on low-band aggregation issues, and found that “the likelihood of competitive harm is low,” it said. The order rejected concerns raised by the Rural Wireless Association, EchoStar, Communications Workers of America, Public Knowledge and New America’s Open Technology Institute, among other critics of the deal (see 2505160019).
“Based on our review of the record, we substantially credit Applicants’ claims that acquisition of the spectrum will result in 4G LTE and 5G network improvements,” the bureau order said. “We find that AT&T is likely to have strong business incentives to use the spectrum to be acquired … to promptly and meaningfully increase the capacity of its 4G LTE and 5G networks and to use the resultant capacity gains to improve its offered speeds and introduce new products and services to its customers.”
The order also briefly mentioned the DEI commitments. “We accept AT&T’s commitments as firm and definite, and expect that these changes will prevent DEI discrimination in the post-transaction company, as consistent with the law and the public interest.” UScellular has been renamed Array as it exits as a regional wireless carrier and refocuses on the tower business (see 2508120062).