FCC may review M&A spectrum rules - report

The US Federal Communications Commission could overhaul the way it measures competition in the mobile industry, a senior FCC official told Washington blog The Hill. According to the report, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski plans to circulate an order with the other commissioners that would launch a review of the FCC's rules for analyzing whether any one company has accumulated too much spectrum. The commission is expected to vote on the proposal at its September meeting. 

The FCC uses the rules, known as a "spectrum screen," when deciding whether to approve mergers and spectrum purchases. The agency plans to review the rules before it auctions off broadcaster airwaves to mobile carriers. When Congress authorized the FCC to conduct the auctions, it also encouraged the FCC to re-assess its spectrum screen. 

Currently, the FCC creates a new screen for each deal on a case-by-case basis. Although it relies on general guidelines, the specific rules are unique to each transaction. Under the new proposal, FCC could develop a single formula that would be applied universally. 

AT&T welcomed the proposal, after earlier claiming the regulator's use of a new screen clouded the review of its proposed takeover of T-Mobile USA. A Sprint spokesman said the changes could do more to introduce to distinguish between the utility of different spectrum bands.