Subject: [NEXTEL-1] FCC scraps plans for merger guidelines

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 17:35:39 -0500

FCC scraps plans for merger guidelines

By Ben Charny
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
January 22, 2003, 3:35 PM PT

The Federal Communications Commission has backed down on plans to create its
own guidelines when reviewing mergers between U.S. cell phone carriers, an FCC
representative said.

Instead, the FCC likely will rely on an existing set of standards, such as those used by
the
Department of Justice.

"Ultimately, we did a lot of work and drafting, but it didn't move through the
commission," the
FCC representative said. The representative declined to be more specific about why the
agency
made its decision.

The FCC is one of several government agencies that review carriers' plans to merge.
Currently,
the FCC is required to base its decisions on the standards of fair competition developed
by
other government agencies. The FCC then explains in detail the reasons for its decisions.

If the commission were to have its own set of guidelines in place, however, the extra
weeks
spent creating what is essentially a legal argument would not be necessary. The FCC would
merely point to its own guidelines.

But wireless carriers say it wouldn't streamline the process for them. Carriers instead
would
have to reargue their cases based on a new set of standards. "It would be like getting
your test
graded twice by two different teachers," said Travis Larson, a spokesman for the Cellular
Telecommunications and Internet Association.

A small trickle of what's expected to be a larger flow of proposed mergers and
acquisitions has
already begun. In the past month, the FCC began reviewing Verizon Wireless' request to buy

the spectrum licenses of Northcoast Communications, a wireless company funded by
Cablevision.

Beginning in January, carriers are no longer limited to the amount of spectrum--the
airwaves
that cell phone calls travel through--that they can own. But spectrum is only occasionally

auctioned off by the government, so most carriers are expected to merge or acquire other
carriers to get the precious airwaves.

http://news.com.com/2100-1033-981685.html

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