AT&T Says Dish’s Tactics Distorted Spectrum Auction

AT&T said rival Dish Network skewed prices and distorted the results of the record US sale of wireless licenses, and it called on the Federal Communications Commission to closely examine the satellite broadcaster’s behavior.

The comments by AT&T regulatory executive Joan Marsh came after an FCC auction that drew $45 billion in bids, more than double the amount analysts expected. AT&T won $18.2 billion of licenses, and Verizon Communications won $10.4 billion of them. Dish was a surprise second-place finisher with $13.3 billion in winning bids. It also qualified for $3.3 billion in small-business discounts through a strategy that involved the coordinated bidding of three entities in the anonymous auction. AT&T said that the strategy created a misleading impression of actual demand for licenses and pushed up their price. AT&T said the FCC should prevent similar strategies from being used during a much-anticipated auction of broadcasters’ spectrum slated for 2016.