Rural Telecoms Also Petition FCC to Deny Verizon More Spectrum

The Rural Telecommunications Group, Rural Cellular Association, the Media Access Project, and Public Knowledge today joined T-Mobile USA by filing a petition with the Federal Communications Commission asking the government body to prevent Verizon Wireless from acquiring spectrum assets from cable companies. Verizon is hoping to purchase blocks of 700MHz and AWS spectrum for $3.6 billion from Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, and Cox Communications. The RTG accuses Verizon Wireless of "systematically attempting to corner the market for commercial mobile wireless spectrum while simultaneously stripping existing and potential competitors of all their spectrum holdings. This practice is anticompetitive and a violation of antitrust law and should result in the FCC's denial of all of the applications filed by Verizon Wireless." The RTG, RCCA and others also accused Verizon Wireless of violating the Communications Act of 1934 and the Sherman Antitrust Act.

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