Yesterday CCIA filed a letter requesting the Federal Communications Commission and the
Department of Justice “fully consider the potential effects of the
extensive Commercial Agreements that accompany the proposed spectrum
transactions” between Verizon Wireless and the nation’s largest cable
companies.
CCIA’s letter follows letters from the Independent Telephone
and Telecommunications Alliance (ITTA), Frontier Communications, and Windstream
Communications warning that the proposed Commercial Agreements between Verizon
Wireless, a partial subsidiary of Verizon Communications, and its cable
partners – Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, and Bright House –
threaten to harm the public interest and decrease competition in both the
wireline and mobile broadband markets.
CCIA believes the Verizon-cable collaboration will likely
reduce the potential for inter-modal competition between cable and telco
landline broadband services and increase barriers to entry and disadvantages
for independent companies of all sizes in both the mobile and fixed broadband
markets – markets that are already highly concentrated and characterized by
vertical integration at the top. CCIA has urged the FCC and DOJ to thoroughly
review the potential of the proposed transactions to harm consumers, lessen
competition, and disserve the public interest, and to reject or condition the
transactions as necessary to prevent these harms.
