The FCC announced it had approved, with conditions, the transfer of control applications filed by TMobile and Sprint. The FCC found that the transaction will help close the digital divide and advance US leadership in 5G, the next generation of wireless connectivity.
The approval was conditioned on the parties fulfilling a number of commitments, including:
Compliance with the commitments will be verified by rigorous drive-testing, overseen by an independent third party and subject to FCC oversight. In addition, the parties will be required to make payments that could reach over two billion dollars if they do not meet their commitments within six years and they will be required to make additional payments until they have fulfilled their commitments.
In connection with the merger, the FCC also proposed—subject to conditions—modifications to construction deadlines related to DISH licenses. The proposed DISH construction deadline modifications would facilitate the implementation of certain measures in the Department of Justice’s consent decree in connection with the transaction that was announced in July, where DISH pledged to become a new entrant into the wireless industry, offering cutting-edge 5G service to over two-thirds of Americans within four years.
The FCC concluded that the transaction, as conditioned, would not harm competition. Specifically, it found that the transaction would enhance competition in rural America and among quality-conscious consumers along with strengthening competition in the home broadband and enterprise markets. The FCC found that the parties’ divestiture of Boost Mobile, Sprint’s leading prepaid brand, would address the potential for reduced competition for price-conscious consumers in urban areas.
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The Regulatory Mix Today: FCC Approves TMobile/Sprint Merger, FCC November Open Meeting, FTC/AT&T Settlement on Unlimited Data
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FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced the tentative agenda for the FCC’s Open Meeting now scheduled for Friday, November 22, 2019. It includes the following items:
The FCC will also consider two radio station related items.
The Federal Trade Commission announced that AT&T Mobility, LLC, agreed to pay $60 million to settle litigation over allegations that it misled millions of its smartphone customers by charging them for “unlimited” data plans while reducing their data speeds. The settlement stems from a complaint filed by the FTC in 2014 alleging that AT&T failed to adequately disclose to its unlimited data plan customers that, if they reach a certain amount of data use in a given billing cycle, AT&T would reduce—or “throttle”—their data speeds to the point that many common mobile phone applications, such as web browsing and video streaming, became difficult or nearly impossible to use. AT&T’s alleged practices affected more than 3.5 million customers as of October 2014, according to the FTC complaint.
As part of the settlement, AT&T is prohibited from making any representation about the speed or amount of its mobile data, including that it is “unlimited,” without disclosing any material restrictions on the speed or amount of data. The disclosures need to be prominent, not buried in fine print or hidden behind hyperlinks. For example, if an AT&T website advertises a data plan as unlimited, but AT&T may slow speeds after consumers reach a certain data cap, AT&T must prominently and clearly disclose those restrictions.
The $60 million settlement will be deposited into a fund that the company will use to provide partial refunds to both current and former customers who had originally signed up for unlimited plans prior to 2011 but were throttled by AT&T. Affected consumers will not be required to submit a claim for the refunds. Current AT&T customers will automatically receive a credit to their bills while former customers will receive checks for the refund amount they are owed.
The stipulated settlement requires approval by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division.
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The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of an Inteserra Briefing.