The FCC's Full Plate Gets Fuller

As if it didn't already have enough on its plate, the Federal Communications Commission must now decide whether to approve or block AT&T's $49 billion acquisition of DirecTV.

The FCC recently moved forward with its controversial proposal to regulate how broadband providers must treat traffic over their networks and set rules for next year's auction of TV airwaves to wireless carriers. Those two crucial actions are expected to generate months of debate by themselves. On top of that, the FCC must also weigh the transition to next-generation Internet-protocol phone networks and decide whether to allow Comcast, the nation's largest cable and broadband company, to acquire its second-place competitor, Time Warner Cable. Meanwhile, a possible Sprint bid for T-Mobile US lurks in the background and threatens to overburden the agency. "This year holds some of the most important regulatory decisions and industry transformative transactions requiring FCC to work together effectively," said Gene Kimmelman, chief executive of the consumer-advocacy group Public Knowledge and a former antitrust official at the Justice Department.