Today two FCC commissioners, Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps, refused to rubber stamp the DoJ’s unconditional approval of AT&T’s acquisition of BellSouth. This could be a landmark event. As FCC chairman Martin, who has never seen a consolidation he didn’t love, finds himself with a split board. Commissioners Martin and Tate are pushing hard to approve the acquisition without any stipulations; while Commissioners Adelstein and Copps have expressed realistic concerns about the DoJ’s approval, and what effect the consolidation would have on competition. Commissioner McDowell has to abstain, under FCC regulations — due to previous employment with both AT&T and BellSouth. Without support from one of the Democrats, the merger is dead. Martin, of course, won’t allow this to happen, and he is, no doubt, more then willing to trade off conditions to allow the merger to proceed — he has already proposed allowing competitors access to 30 commercial buildings in Bellsouth territory; a facile concession at best.
There can be little doubt that enormous pressures are being applied to Adelstein and Copps tonight, as the commission is scheduled to meet again tomorrow to deal with the two most important items from today’s agenda: the acquisition, and Net Neutrality.
There is some, small chance, that Copps and Adelstein will hold out for a enforced Net Neutrality stipulation to allow the merger to proceed. It is critical that the commissioners be contacted about these issues:
Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein
Update:
Apparently, not enough arm twisting was applied to Copps and Adelstein last night. Commissioner Martin canceled today’s special meeting — meaning he was unable to get the one of the two holdouts on board. Martin has rescheduled the vote for November 3rd. This gives every one plenty of time to contact Comissioners Copps and Adelstein, and inform them of our concerns regarding the future of both the Internet and telecommunications in the US.
