Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Regulators Eye Cingular/AT&T Deal

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 14:39:15 -0500

Regulators Eye Cingular/AT&T Deal
BY MARK ROCKWELL
FEBRUARY 19, 2004

WASHINGTON -- A senior level FCC official says regulators are carefully
eyeing the Cingular Wireless/AT&T Wireless acquisition plan with more
concern than they would have given a Vodafone/AT&T merger.
The proposed Cingular/AT&T acquisition would combine one of the largest
wireless carriers in the United States with a company that has ties to
two of the largest landline carriers in the country, which makes it
potentially more troublesome than an acquisition of AT&T by
British-owned Vodafone, the official says.

Many industry insiders thought the initial merger kicking off the next
expected round of carrier consolidation "would be easy," he adds. But
the combination of the two carriers' networks and the resulting
individual market dynamics in the metropolitan markets that would be
served has regulators at the FCC thinking about the implications for
local wireline and wireless markets.
Asked if the acquisition might require divestiture of some spectrum in
some markets, the official says it might happen, but it's probably too
early to tell. "I don't know the answer to that. It wouldn't surprise
me," he says.
http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=newsat2direct&starting=2&pubdate=02/19/04

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