Jumat, 15 Agustus 2008

AT&T on Monday reiterated its opposition to the New Clearwire WiMAX deal spearheaded by Sprint, calling it anti-competitive and accusing stakeholders of providing inconsistent stats on how the initiative will affect the wireless broadband marketplace.

"While AT&T does not fundamentally oppose the transaction and believes competition benefits consumers, the regulatory process must be consistent for all providers," according to an AT&T spokesperson. "We will continue to urge the FCC to subject Sprint Nextel and Clearwire to the same competitive analysis standard under which it reviews all other carriers."

In early May, Sprint opted to take over the combined WiMAX operations of Clearwire in a deal backed by tech titans Comcast, Google, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, and Intel.

Advocates say the project will spur broadband deployment and provide a new competitive force in the market, but competitors like AT&T claim that the resulting New Clearwire will control far too much mobile spectrum to make it a level playing field.

By not evaluating the deal as it would any other tech merger, the FCC is applying special treatment, according to the AT&T filing.

In a filing submitted to the FCC last week, Sprint said AT&Ts objection is a "transparent attempt to use the commissions spectrum screen to hamstring prospective competition to AT&T."

Sprint and other New Clearwire participants have altered their stats, depending on the audience, when talking about how much spectrum they will control, AT&T said.

They "claim before the commission that they really have only 55.5 MHz of useable spectrum for competitive evaluation purposes while simultaneously claiming before the investment community and the Securities and Exchange Commission that their spectrum holdings will be at least three times that size," according to AT&T.

Given this "pattern of double-speak," the notion that the FCC does not need to conduct a review of the deal is "simply unconvincing," AT&T said.

"AT&T fails to point to a single competitive harm that would arise from the New Clearwire transaction," Sprint said.

AT&T also reserved some fire for Google, which it criticized for pushing "open-access" restrictions during the 700-MHz auction but now "allowing market forces to determine the manner in which Clearwire should offer its services."

Googles strategy is to "game the regulatory system to tie down other market participants with regulatory encumbrances while leaving its own networks and lines of business unregulated," AT&T said.

In March 2008, AT&T spent $6.6 billion on 227 licenses in the 700-MHz band while Verizon bought 109 licenses for $9.4 billion. Google, which pushed the FCC to make the c-block open to all devices and equipment, placed initial bids to drive up the c-block reserve price, but ultimately stopped bidding and allowed Verizon to sweep in and scoop up the spectrum.

Sprint argued that the 2.5-GHz band, which will be used for New Clearwire WiMAX, "is not in the same category of spectrum as the PCS, cellular, SMR, and 700-MHz bands that have been subject to the commissions CMRS screen in prior CMRS mergers."

Naturally, AT&T begged to differ, and pointed to a Clearwire "Public Interest Statement" that says "New Clearwire will face competition from 4G service providers using 700 MHz spectrum."

In an August 5 filing, Google urged the FCC to ignore "those who would prefer to preserve their marketplace positions are permitted to hinder the emergence of a strong broadband third pipe."

AT&Ts request to reject the deal is substantively improper and anti-competitive, according to Google.

Also issuing its support in filings last week was partner Intel and Motorola, whose equipment will likely be used for New Clearwire initiatives.

"Important public interest benefits are unlikely to be realized" without this deal, according to Motorola.

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