AT&T raises static over FCC review

AT&T and the Federal Communications Commission are at odds again — this time over how the agency measures when a company has too much spectrum.

The issue arose this week when AT&T said the FCC improperly made a last-minute change to its “spectrum screen” tool, which measures spectrum concentration in particular markets, during its review of the AT&T/T-Mobile deal. The change, AT&T alleges, made it seem like many more markets would be negatively affected by the deal. The staff report released by the FCC last week outlining its opposition to the AT&T and T-Mobile deal found it would lead to “an unprecedented” amount of spectrum concentration in some markets. Tucked into a footnote in the report is a note explaining that the FCC adjusted its “spectrum screen” tool to reduce the amount of spectrum used in the screen by 12.5 megahertz.

AT&T Senior Vice President Bob Quinn questioned the FCC staff’s ability to impose that spectrum screen change on its findings of the AT&T and T-Mobile deal, when the change had not yet been adopted in its decision on the AT&T/Qualcomm deal. “The impact of that change was significant in terms of [the] number of markets impacted — estimates indicate the revised screen caused a trigger in approximately 35 percent more markets than the screen currently in place,” Quinn said. “Changes to significant analysis like the spectrum aggregation screen belong in a fully transparent, regularly conducted commission proceeding with opportunity for notice and comment for all parties.”

An FCC official said the spectrum screen does not require rule making for updates, adding that the tool has only been updated during merger reviews. The screen is used to show markets the FCC would look at more closely and doesn’t have any actionable effect. The official said the spectrum screen change was less than 3 percent of the total screen. It was changed to reflect that a small slice of spectrum cannot be used for mobile broadband. Moreover, AT&T already had suggested the FCC make tweaks to the tool, outside of a formal rule-making process.