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Some members of the newly formed Alliance for Broadband Competitioncalled on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and the U.S.Department of Justice to reject the two proposed deals for Verizon to buy Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum from four cable providers for US$3.9 billion. Other alliancemembers said they could live with the deals if the two agenciesinclude several conditions focused on spectrum divestitures,roaming agreements and backhaul pricing. The proposed deals would put an "excessive concentration ofspectrum" in the hands of the nation's largest mobile carrier, saidKathleen Ham, vice president of federal regulatory affairs atT-Mobile USA. The mobile market is at a critical juncture as carriers move toprovide 4G LTE and only spectrum bands AWS and 700MHz are currentlyavailable for that service, she said. "It's very important thatthere be spectrum available for everybody to move to LTE," Hamsaid. The proposed spectrum deals, announced in December, would allowVerizon to buy AWS spectrum from SpectrumCo, a joint venture amongComcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, and from Cox Communications , a former member of SpectrumCo. The deals would allow Verizon andthe cable providers to market each others' services and wouldcreate joint research agreements focused on integrating mobile andwireline services. Members of the new alliance include T-Mobile USA, Sprint Nextel,Public Knowledge, and the Rural Telecommunications Group and RCA,two trade groups representing rural and regional mobile carriers.The members of the alliance had previously expressed concerns andorganizers said the alliance will help them work together tocontinue to voice those. Comcast suggested that the groups have long been working togetherthrough Washington, D.C., public relations firm the Glen EchoGroup. "Same PR firm, different day," Sena Fitzmaurice, Comcast's vicepresident for government communications, said in an email. "Thesegroups organized by this PR firm have been sending out similarpress releases, doing press conferences and doing filings at theFCC together for months. There's nothing new here." Fitzmaurice also repeated Comcast's assertion that T-Mobile, whichtried to merge with competitor AT&T last year, has been"inconsistent" in talking about the competitive landscape in themobile market. Last year, T-Mobile executives said their mergershould be approved because there was "extensive competition" in themobile market, but recently, the company has said the Verizon dealwith the cable firms would do "serious harm" to mobile competition,Comcast said in an April 26 filing at the FCC. T-Mobile also questioned when Sprint fought against the AT&Tand T-Mobile deal, saying " the fact that a major wireless competitor is making these arguments should give regulators pause," Comcastnoted. But members of the alliance said the Verizon and cable deals wouldcreate a cozy relationship among former competitors. The "side"research and marketing agreements would hurt consumers, said HaroldFeld, legal director at Public Knowledge. The research agreementwill create a patent portfolio that allows the companies to freezeout other competitors seeking to integrate wired broadband, mobilebroadband and video services, he said. "We could not see how you honored those agreements and avoidedbeing a cartel ," Feld said. "Not only does [the agreement] create the back roomwhere these guys can meet every month in perfect security and talkabout all the areas where they're supposed to be competing, butthey can continue to collude through these technologies andstandards." Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S.government for The IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter atGrantGross. Grant's e-mail address is grant_gross@idg.com. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Led Flood Light Bulbs , Flexible Led Strip Lights for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Led Spot Light Bulbs.
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