monopoly

Not so fast, doc. Justice department appeals AT&T Time Warner decision

15 July 2018 by Steve Blum
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In a terse filing, the federal justice department gave notice last week that it is appealing a judge’s decision to allow AT&T to buy Time Warner’s content companies, with no strings attached.

The justice department didn’t outline a specific goal, but one possibility is that it wants AT&T to give up some of its new empire, perhaps Turner channels such as CNN. According to a story in Variety by Ted Johnson, it could turn out to be a risky maneuver…

Larry Downes, senior industry and innovation fellow at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy, said that the Justice Department’s appeal carries risks for the government.

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AT&T sees Frontier’s two buck phone suck, then raises TV prices by $5

7 July 2018 by Steve Blum
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It might be the least surprising telecoms story of 2018: AT&T is raising prices in a sneaky cash grab similar to what Frontier did last year. AT&T raised the “administrative fee” it tacks on to bills from 76¢ to $1.99 per month. That’s on top of whatever price it tells consumers they’re going to pay.

According to a story by Aaron Pressman in Fortune, AT&T’s explanation is that it pays for “items like cell site maintenance and interconnection between carriers”.… More

Judge allows AT&T to buy Time Warner, no strings attached

13 June 2018 by Steve Blum
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A federal judge decided yesterday that AT&T may buy Time Warner’s video and motion picture content companies, including HBO, CNN and the Warner Brothers movie studio. Judge Richard Leon, who was appointed by president George W. Bush, put no conditions on the acquisition. He simply ruled “the government’s request to enjoin the proposed merger is denied”.

The 172 page decision does an excellent of outlining the current state of the video distribution market. AT&T wants to buy Time Warner so its DirecTv and other video services – delivered via satellite and mobile and wireline networks – can better compete with the likes of Netflix, Comcast (which also owns an extensive stable of content companies) and Amazon.… More

If you don’t stop it, fix it, justice department tells AT&T-Time Warner trial judge

12 May 2018 by Steve Blum
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It’s up to a federal judge to decide whether or not AT&T can buy Time Warner, and all the content and video channels that come along with it. The federal justice department tried to make the case that the deal would be anti-competitive and should be blocked. AT&T, naturally enough, claimed it wasn’t.

Some experts who followed the trial closely thought AT&T made the better case. The justice department has to prove that a vertical merger – when a company buys its supplier – would have the same destructive effect on competition as a horizontal one, when a company buys a competitor.… More

T-Mobile, Sprint combo is anti-competitive, but that’s the feds’ call

1 May 2018 by Steve Blum
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The $26.5 billion dollar proposed purchase of Sprint by T-Mobile can’t go forward unless it’s given a pass by anti-trust watchdogs. As a practical matter, that means the federal justice department’s anti-trust unit sits on its hands and doesn’t challenge it in court, and the Federal Communications Commission signs off on the license transfers involved.

In theory, the California attorney general could jump in. In practice, that’s unlikely. So let’s set it aside for now. Unless there’s some obscure wireline telephone asset involved – anything is possible, but I don’t think so – the California Public Utilities Commission isn’t in the game either.… More

T-Mobile, Sprint about to turn U.S. mobile market into a threesome

29 April 2018 by Steve Blum
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Update: the deal is done.

The competitive mobile broadband market might not be as red in tooth and claw in the near future. According to several media outlets, T-Mobile and Sprint, the number three and four mobile carriers in the U.S., are on the verge of announcing a merger. It’s the second time they’ve gone down this path. According to CNBC, this time it’s because the competition is too much for the smaller Sprint…

Talks most recently broke off late last year after SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son decided he didn’t want to lose control of a combined company.

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Streetlight gifts to mobile carriers spread to other states

15 April 2018 by Steve Blum
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California is not the only state where lobbyists for mobile carriers and other big, incumbent cable and telephone companies are giving stacks of cash offering somber advice to state legislators and getting huge gifts of public property in return. According to a couple of articles by Timothy Clark in Route Fifty, several other states are preempting local ownership of vertical infrastructure and municipal control of public right of ways.

In some states, the giveaway is even more generous than the California’s gift to telecoms lobbyists last year, senate bill 649.… More

Unless it's AT&T or Verizon, telco capital investment is at life support levels

13 April 2018 by Steve Blum
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As with subscriber numbers, there’s a big gap between the two biggest telcos in the U.S. – AT&T and Verizon – and the rest of the field when it comes to capital spending. Both companies are planning multi-billion dollar investments in their networks in 2018, according to a story by Sean Buckley in FierceTelecom, with AT&T planning to spend $25 billion on capital upgrades in 2018, while Verizon is looking at the $17 billion to $18 billion range.… More

Colorado hands broadband subsidy decisions to telephone, cable companies

4 April 2018 by Steve Blum
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Colorado has its own version of a state broadband infrastructure subsidy program. Governor John Hickenlooper signed three bills into law on Monday that, together, set up a grant program, funded by $100 million from taxes assessed for universal telephone service, that will pay for broadband projects in unserved areas (h/t to Fred Pilot at the Eldo Telecom blog for the pointer) . Those are defined as places where Internet service at 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds is not available.… More

FCC sets up rich exurb versus poor rural, urban debate over broadband subsidies

26 March 2018 by Steve Blum
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Should low income areas be first in line for broadband subsidies? That’s a question that both the Federal Communications Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission are asking. The CPUC is considering giving priority for California Advanced Services Fund infrastructure grants to communities where median household income is at or below $49,200 a year.

The FCC floated that same idea last week. In the course of approving limits on allowable expenses for some subsidised rural broadband projects, it decided to take the next step and ask for public comment on possible approaches: giving eligible consumers a theoretical choice of providers through a voucher system, adding household income to the criteria for picking eligible areas, or even basing federal subsidies on a state’s ability to pay…

For example, should we target support not only to high-cost areas but low-income areas as well?

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