Comcast refuses to go public with assessment of Sprint/T-Mobile merger

Sprint and T-Mobile are urging Comcast to say publicly how it believes it will be affected by the proposed merger of the nation’s third and fourth largest wireless network operators. But Comcast is having none of it. “Comcast’s strategic perspective on, and assessment of, the competitive impact of the Proposed Transaction [between Sprint and T-Mobile] on Comcast’s nascent wireless business and its television and broadband businesses—including discussions of Comcast’s wireless business strategy, contractual terms, and related business negotiations—constitutes competitively sensitive information that is not otherwise publicly available and falls squarely within the Commission’s definition of Highly Confidential Information,” Comcast told the Federal Communications Commission. The company wrote that Sprint and T-Mobile “are asking the Commission to make Comcast’s—a non-party’s—Highly Confidential internal competitive and strategic analyses widely available to the public. Such a request is at odds with the Commission’s confidentiality policy and implementing regulations. Public disclosure of this sensitive commercial information would result in competitive harm to Comcast.”