Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on December 1, 2011 at 10:25 am
The following may be attributed to Jim Cicconi, AT&T Senior Executive Vice President of External & Legislative Affairs:
We expected that the AT&T-T-Mobile transaction would receive careful, considered, and fair analysis. Unfortunately, the preliminary FCC Staff Analysis offers none of that. The document is so obviously one-sided that any fair-minded person reading it is left with the clear impression that it is an advocacy piece, and not a considered analysis.
In our view, the report raises questions as to whether its authors were predisposed. The report cherry-picks facts to support its views, and ignores facts that don’t. Where facts were lacking, the report speculates, with no basis, and then treats its own speculations as if they were fact. This is clearly not the fair and objective analysis to which any party is entitled, and which we have every right to expect.
All any company can properly ask when they present a matter to the government is a fair hearing and objective treatment based on factual findings. The FCC’s report makes clear that neither occurred on our merger, at least within the pages of this report. This has not been our past experience with the agency, which lets us hope for and expect better in the future. Here are examples of what we are describing:
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Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on November 30, 2011 at 1:30 pm
The following may be attributed to Tim McKone, AT&T Executive Vice President of Federal Relations:
“We are very encouraged by the tremendous effort by members of the House to put forth comprehensive legislation that will make available more spectrum for mobile broadband services. We commend Representatives Waxman and Eshoo for their leadership in addressing this critical issue our country faces. The Wireless Innovation and Public Safety Act of 2011 provides a framework to free up vital spectrum resources while at the same time recognizing the needs of the public safety community. We look forward to working with Representatives Waxman and Eshoo and their colleagues as it is critical that Congress move quickly to advance spectrum legislation.”
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Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on November 29, 2011 at 5:26 pm
The following statement may be attributed to Jim Cicconi, AT&T Senior Executive Vice President-External and Legislative Affairs:
“The FCC has recognized that it is required by its own rules to dismiss our merger application. This makes all the more troubling their decision to nonetheless release a preliminary staff report on the merger. This report is not an order of the FCC and has never been voted on. It is simply a staff draft that raises questions of fact that were to be addressed in an administrative hearing, a hearing which will not now take place. It has no force or effect under law, which raises questions as to why the FCC would choose to release it. The draft report has also not been made available to AT&T prior to today, so we have had no opportunity to address or rebut its claims, which makes its release all the more improper. ”
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