Critics tell FCC to block Verizon deal with cable firms

T-Mobile and public interest groups (including the Benton Foundation) urged the Federal Communications Commission to block Verizon Wireless’ spectrum and marketing deal with cable firms, saying the transaction would lead to less competition and higher wireless service fees for consumers.

T-Mobile said the $3.9 billion sale of airwaves to Verizon by cable firms would create “excessive concentration” in the wireless market. MetroPCS Communications, the fifth-largest cellphone company, also urged the FCC to block the deal. It said the parties had not provided enough information to prove that the acquisition was in the public interest. Sprint Nextel Corp., the No. 3 carrier, took a more measured stance. It didn't ask the FCC to block the deal outright, but said the agency should look closely at the wider implications of the deal.

Several public interest groups including Public Knowledge asked the FCC to block the deal, expressing concern over a unique cross-marketing agreement between fierce rivals in the business of supplying wireline Internet connections into homes. Through the deal, Verizon Wireless and cable companies have begun to cross-promote each other’s services so that they can offer what is known as “quadruple plays” — bundles of landline phone, wireless, cable television and high-speed Internet connections to consumers. That portion of the deal is being investigated by the Justice Department, which is also reviewing the deal, because of concern Verizon Communications may let its FiOs wireline television and Internet service atrophy. The marketing arrangement “gives rise to serious concern that not only will these providers decline to compete further with one another, they will actively collude with one another," the public interest groups said in a joint filing.