Cable Ops, Verizon: T-Mobile Swap Makes SpectrumCo Deal Even More Consumer-Friendly

Cable operators and Verizon argued that the impact of the proposed Verizon–T-Mobile spectrum swap on the proposed Verizon–SpectrumCo deal will be to make it even more consumer-friendly and give the government even less reason to take issue with it.

Verizon Wireless, SpectrumCo and Cox Wireless said that the T-Mobile swap can only enhance the public interest benefits and will "underscore the effectiveness of the [Federal Communications] Commission's secondary markets policies," while mitigating concerns the SpectrumCo deal would be putting too much spectrum in one company's hands. And in case there were any doubt that Verizon's T-Mobile deal was partly a way to boost its chances of snagging cable spectrum, the parties laid it on the table. "[T]he T-Mobile transaction further undermines spectrum aggregation claims made by some parties in the SpectrumCo–Cox proceeding." But they also argue that there is public interest benefit to the deal regardless of the separate Verizon–T-Mobile deal.