Teh One Who Knocks
05-15-2012, 11:48 AM
By Mark Hachman - PC Magazine
http://i.imgur.com/3HgwE.jpg
A collection of businesses - including T-Mobile and Sprint - joined together on Monday to form the Alliance for Broadband Competition, a lobbying group designed to block the partnership between Comcast and Verizon.
Members of the Alliance include Public Knowledge, The Competitive Carriers Association, The Rural Telecommunications Group, plus Sprint and T-Mobile.
Members of the group said that they had banded together to publicly oppose the Comcast-Verizon partnership, which they viewed as a vastly anticompetitive arrangement between the top cable provider and wireless carrier.
"The largest cable company and the largest wireless company are now aligned together and it will now be nearly mpossible for any competitor in either market" to overtake them without federal intervention, said Joel Kelsey, a policy analyst with Free Press, during a call with reporters.
As part of a $3.6 billion deal announced last year, Verizon Wireless agreed to purchase 122 Advanced Wireless Systems (AWS) spectrum licenses from SpectrumCo, LLC, a joint effort from Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks. Perhaps more importantly, the agreement also called for the cable companies and Verizon to resell each other's services, which Comcast has used as to sell "quad-play" packages of voice, data, video, and cellular services.
The spectrum sale, however, is still awaiting regulatory approval. Verizon recently said it would sell off coveted spectrum in the 700-MHz band if officials approve the cable deal.
T-Mobile and the Competitive Carriers Association also called on the FCC to take action to prevent Verizon from "warehousing" 700-MHz and AWS spectrum that could be used to enable LTE services, and make them available to rival carriers who would build them out and compete.
"In our view it makes no sense to acquire and warehouse AWS spectrum to only hoard it," said Kathleen Ham, vice president of regulatory events for T-Mobile. She said that T-Mobile had shown that Verizon was the least efficient user of carrier spectrum of all the major carriers.
Bert Foer, president of the American Antitrust Institute, likened the spectrum deals to creating a "duopoly" of AT&T and Verizon. But, he added, the "sales agent" agreement creating the joint services allowed Verizon and Comcast to essentially divide their markets, allowing them to sell their own services - cable service for Comcast, and cellular service from Verizon - without the fear that other would compete.
Sprint did not participate in the call. In a statement, the company objected to the Bright House spectrum swap and service partnership.
"Sprint shares the Alliance's concerns that the proposed transaction between Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner, Bright House and Cox could undermine broadband competition and result in less choice for American consumers," Sprint said. "The cooperative arrangements between these companies encompass wired and wireless technologies, voice, video, and data services: the full complement of 21st century electronic communications services and have the potential to touch each consumer and every government, business, healthcare, and educational institution in the United States. Sprint urges the FCC to closely examine whether the collaboration of these telecommunications and cable giants upends competition between these historical industry rivals, resulting in reduced choices and increased prices for consumers."
http://i.imgur.com/3HgwE.jpg
A collection of businesses - including T-Mobile and Sprint - joined together on Monday to form the Alliance for Broadband Competition, a lobbying group designed to block the partnership between Comcast and Verizon.
Members of the Alliance include Public Knowledge, The Competitive Carriers Association, The Rural Telecommunications Group, plus Sprint and T-Mobile.
Members of the group said that they had banded together to publicly oppose the Comcast-Verizon partnership, which they viewed as a vastly anticompetitive arrangement between the top cable provider and wireless carrier.
"The largest cable company and the largest wireless company are now aligned together and it will now be nearly mpossible for any competitor in either market" to overtake them without federal intervention, said Joel Kelsey, a policy analyst with Free Press, during a call with reporters.
As part of a $3.6 billion deal announced last year, Verizon Wireless agreed to purchase 122 Advanced Wireless Systems (AWS) spectrum licenses from SpectrumCo, LLC, a joint effort from Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks. Perhaps more importantly, the agreement also called for the cable companies and Verizon to resell each other's services, which Comcast has used as to sell "quad-play" packages of voice, data, video, and cellular services.
The spectrum sale, however, is still awaiting regulatory approval. Verizon recently said it would sell off coveted spectrum in the 700-MHz band if officials approve the cable deal.
T-Mobile and the Competitive Carriers Association also called on the FCC to take action to prevent Verizon from "warehousing" 700-MHz and AWS spectrum that could be used to enable LTE services, and make them available to rival carriers who would build them out and compete.
"In our view it makes no sense to acquire and warehouse AWS spectrum to only hoard it," said Kathleen Ham, vice president of regulatory events for T-Mobile. She said that T-Mobile had shown that Verizon was the least efficient user of carrier spectrum of all the major carriers.
Bert Foer, president of the American Antitrust Institute, likened the spectrum deals to creating a "duopoly" of AT&T and Verizon. But, he added, the "sales agent" agreement creating the joint services allowed Verizon and Comcast to essentially divide their markets, allowing them to sell their own services - cable service for Comcast, and cellular service from Verizon - without the fear that other would compete.
Sprint did not participate in the call. In a statement, the company objected to the Bright House spectrum swap and service partnership.
"Sprint shares the Alliance's concerns that the proposed transaction between Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner, Bright House and Cox could undermine broadband competition and result in less choice for American consumers," Sprint said. "The cooperative arrangements between these companies encompass wired and wireless technologies, voice, video, and data services: the full complement of 21st century electronic communications services and have the potential to touch each consumer and every government, business, healthcare, and educational institution in the United States. Sprint urges the FCC to closely examine whether the collaboration of these telecommunications and cable giants upends competition between these historical industry rivals, resulting in reduced choices and increased prices for consumers."