Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on November 29, 2011 at 4:07 pm
The following statement on the Jumpstarting Opportunity with Broadband Spectrum (JOBS) Act of 2011, unveiled today by Chairman Walden, may be attributed to Tim McKone, AT&T Executive Vice President of Federal Relations:
“We are pleased to support this legislation focused on addressing one of the most pressing infrastructure problems facing our country – the need to bring additional spectrum into the broadband marketplace. Chairman Walden’s bill correctly recognizes the vital role spectrum plays in maintaining our country’s innovative edge while also providing our nation’s first responders with critical communications resources. We look forward to working with him and the Congress to ensure that much needed spectrum is made available through incentive auctions.
“Spectrum is a vital resource that needs immediate attention. We are thankful for the Chairman’s leadership and the progress that’s been made.”
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Posted by: Jim Cicconi on November 29, 2011 at 3:17 pm
I read with interest Harold Feld’s blog and a related filing by Public Knowledge and the Media Access Project (MAP) on AT&T’s withdrawal of its merger application from the FCC. While Harold and his colleagues sometimes have interesting arguments to make, this isn’t one of those times.
Here are the facts:
On Wednesday, November 23, 2011, after learning that the FCC staff had prepared a hearing designation order which was to be circulated for a vote, AT&T and Deutsche Telecom, in accordance with the Commission’s rules and precedent, filed the appropriate forms at the FCC via its Universal Licensing and other systems to withdraw all applications pending before it. At the same time, the parties filed a letter to the Secretary stating that all pending applications were withdrawn effective immediately and were to be dismissed without prejudice per the Commission’s rules.
The parties’ ability to withdraw the applications by right could not be clearer. Section 1.934(a) of the Commission’s rules states that if “the applicant requests dismissal of its application without prejudice, the Commission will dismiss that application without prejudice” unless one of two conditions exists, neither of which is present here. The statement that the Commission “will” dismiss the application without prejudice leaves the Commission with no discretion.
If the rules were not clear enough, the D.C. Circuit Court recently confirmed this interpretation. In Environmentel LLC v. Federal Communications Commission, an applicant withdrew a license transfer application after the Commission had granted the application but before filing of a notice of consummation. The FCC dismissed the notice of consummation on the ground that the application had already been withdrawn.
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Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on November 25, 2011 at 11:19 am
The following statement is attributed to Wayne Watts, AT&T Senior Executive VP and General Counsel:
“Yesterday AT&T withdrew its application with the FCC for approval of our merger with T-Mobile. We took the required actions, announced this publicly, and filed securities disclosures accordingly. We believe the record will show that we withdrew our merger application before the FCC voted on the chairman’s proposed hearing designation order. It has since been reported that the FCC must approve this withdrawal. This is not accurate. The FCC’s own rules give us this right and provide that the FCC ‘will’ grant any such withdrawal. Further, this has been the FCC’s own consistent interpretation of its rules. We have every right to withdraw our merger from the FCC, and the FCC has no right to stop us. Any suggestion the agency might do otherwise would be an abuse of procedure which we would immediately challenge in court.”
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