FCC OKs Spectrum Asset Transfer from Array to AT&T

UPDATE The FCC approved 34 assignment applications filed by New Cingular Wireless PCS, LLC, an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T (NYSE: T) and UScellular – now operating as Array Digital Infrastructure (NYSE: AD) – to transfer and assign several lower 700 MHz and 3.45 GHz licenses from Array to AT&T. The approval follows commitments AT&T made just days before to end its DEI-related policies, Inside Towers reported. It’s the second approval in a series of transactions divesting UScellular’s spectrum assets to T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon, according to Womble, Bond Dickinson’s Rural Spectrum Scanner. 

“After carefully evaluating the potential competitive effects of the proposed assignments, we find that the likelihood of competitive harm is low,” states the agency in its Memorandum Opinion and Order. “Based on our review of the record and our competitive analysis, we conclude that the risk of public interest harm is low. We find it unlikely that the proposed acquisition of 700 MHz and 3.45 GHz spectrum would allow AT&T to foreclose entry, raise rivals’ costs, or otherwise harm the public interest,” the decision reads. 

The Commission also said it “substantially credits the Applicants’ claims that the instant transaction will produce public interest benefits including the provision of additional products and services to AT&T’s customers, faster customer speeds, and a better overall customer experience.”

The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau noted, “The Applicants further state that granting a waiver of the limited-duration aggregation limit on 3.45 GHz spectrum is in the public interest because the primary purpose of the aggregation limit has already been served and the requested waiver would ‘expedite the deployment of advanced services and enable deployment of spectrum that would otherwise lie fallow or be far less rapidly deployed.’”

The agency agreed and “determined the waiver of the aggregation limit on 3.45 GHz spectrum is warranted given the circumstances of this transaction and that a waiver would serve the public interest by ensuring the spectrum at issue is put to rapid use.”

The Rural Wireless Association (RWA) criticized the decision. “The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau erroneously claims that the transaction poses no competitive harm and, instead, benefits the wireless marketplace. Much of the Order approving the transaction relies on the same flawed competitive analysis from the earlier T-Mobile-UScellular Order that is currently under review,” said Carri Bennet, RWA outside counsel in a statement. 

Bennet continued, “The Commission dismisses without adequate rationale several direct harms to rural wireless carriers that will result from the transaction, including increased rates and difficulties with roaming. These two staff level decisions along with an expected decision allowing Verizon to acquire UScellular spectrum collectively amount to the death of mobile wireless competition.” 

By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief