Verizon-cable companies spectrum sale

Tucked amid rows of office cubicles at the sprawling Verizon Wireless headquarters and hidden behind a locked door sit the company’s best kept retail secrets. The mock store looks like a Verizon Wireless retail outlet right down to the signs for the iPhone 5 and racks of mobile accessories. But on one wall, an experimental display of tablets and smartphones labeled “Home Services” offers Verizon customers a new service: cable TV.

There is a huge difference between “it’s bad policy, don’t do it” and “you don’t have authority.”

Last week, Benton’s Headlines staff was distracted by breaking news from the Department of Justice that it was approving, with some changes, a nearly $4 billion deal between Verizon and some of the country’s largest cable companies. By this week’s end, the deal was approved by the Federal Communications Commission as well. Here’s a quick recap of how the week played out.

To assist in monitoring any effects Verizon-SpectrumCo Commercial Agreements have on the marketplace and on the development of emerging product markets, the Federal Communications Commission opens a docket “for the public to file complaints or petitions alleging that the parties are acting in violation of the conditions imposed by this order or engaging in anti-competitive conduct relating to this transaction that implicates the public interest or otherwise violates the Act or FCC rules.”

According to sources inside and outside the Federal Communications Commission, all five commissioners have now cast their votes on Verizon/SpectrumCo, and it will be 5-0 approving Verizon's purchase of spectrum from cable operators Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox and Bright House, with the two Republicans concurring in part.

The government's relative leniency in its requirements for giving a green light to the Verizon-SpectrumCo deal has sparked hopes of further wireless consolidation as carriers seek spectrum to build out next-generation 4G LTE networks.

Few people would imagine that the Verizon/SpectrumCo deal, now heading rapidly for conclusion, could potentially have huge impact on traditional broadcast ownership rules. Unfortunately, unless the Federal Communications Commission takes action, the deal is likely to create a new and powerful loophole in traditional media ownership rules involving something called the “attribution rules.”

In winning approval for a $3.6 billion deal with leading cable companies, Verizon showed that it learned from the mistakes of its chief rival, AT&T.

President Barack Obama borrowed a tool from Teddy Roosevelt to prevent American companies from gouging consumers: a big stick. Just ask Apple, Google, AT&T, Visa, MasterCard and H&R Block. And now you can add Verizon to the list.

Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice approval of the Verizon/SpectrumCo deal is inevitable. Some conditions around the edges will be imposed, as in the Comcast/NBCU merger of 2011, but they won’t grapple with the fundamental problem.

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) criticized the Obama administration for not imposing tougher conditions on Verizon's $3.6 billion deal with the nation's largest cable companies.

A rigorous review by the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice staffs revealed that the deal as proposed by Verizon Wireless and the cable company owners of SpectrumCo posed serious concerns, including in the wired and wireless broadband and video marketplaces. In response to the agencies’ objections, the parties have made a number of binding pro-competitive commitments and will also make fundamental changes to their agreements. Because of these substantial undertakings and in light of the Consent Decree the companies executed with the Justice Department today, I believe the Commission should now approve this transaction, and I will be circulating a draft order to my colleagues that would do so.

Federal regulators are preparing to clear Verizon Wireless's $3.9 billion deal to acquire airwaves from several cable companies including Comcast, according to people close to the negotiations, after the companies reached broad agreement to settle antitrust concerns.

The Federal Communications Commission consolidated its review of four sets of applications filed by Verizon Wireless, Leap Wireless, SpectrumCo, Cox TMI Wireless, and T-Mobile License for spectrum suitable for the provision of mobile broadband service.