FCC Set To Approve AT&T-DirecTV Merger

If AT&T complies, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler says the deal will “directly benefit consumers by bringing more competition to the broadband marketplace”.

(Click image for larger view and slideshow.). “If the conditions are approved by my colleagues, 12.5 million customer locations will have access to a competitive high-speed fiber connection”. The full FCC has yet to formally vote on the deal.

Public Knowledge applauded Wheeler for some of the conditions he outlined – specifically on interconnection and data caps – but said the agency’s authority to impose terms does not go far enough to protect competition in the industry.

The Justice Department also signed off on the deal.

With federal regulators poised to approve AT&T ‘s (NYSE:T) acquisition of DirecTV Group (NASDAQ:DTV), the Q2 earnings estimates of both companies have a low bar heading into the merger.

Free Press lamented the news, saying approval would signal that merging giant companies is a better way to acquire customers than “substantial infrastructure investment”.

In late June, AT&T again extended the provisional deadline for closing the DirecTV transaction in order to give more time for the regulatory green light, insisting that it was confident the merger would be “consummated” shortly.

AT&T’s TV business pipes in cable to 6 million households, while DirecTV supplies more than 20 million households in the US and 19.5 million customers in Latin America. “We hope the order will be approved by the Commission quickly and we expect to close shortly thereafter”.

He added that the additional build-out is about 10 times the size of AT&T’s current fiber-to-the-premises deployment.

“In addition, the conditions will build on the Open Internet Order already in effect, addressing two merger-specific issues”.

“In order to prevent discrimination against online video competition, AT&T will not be permitted to exclude affiliated video services and content from data caps on its fixed broadband connections”, Wheeler said in a statement.

For another, the FCC chairman said, the conditions will require AT&T to “submit all completed interconnection agreements to the Commission, along with regular reports on network performance”.

According to reports, an independent officer will be assigned to ensure that AT&T is following the instructions. The FCC appears to be ready to let the AT&T try its hand at being a pay-TV provider.