BELLEVUE, Wash. — Verizon Wireless should be prevented by federal regulators from buying airwaves from cable companies to avoid “excessive concentration” of spectrum, T-Mobile USA said. Two airwaves purchases totaling more than $3 billion proposed by Verizon “pose a clear threat to competition,” T- Mobile, the fourth-biggest U.S. wireless carrier, said in a filing Tuesday to the Federal Communications Commission.
The purchases would keep smaller competitors from using the airwaves for advanced services, according to T-Mobile, which AT&T unsuccessfully tried to buy last year. Verizon proposed in December acquiring airwaves for $3.6 billion from Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House Networks, and announced a separate $315 million spectrum purchase from Cox Communications. Under the transactions, Verizon and the cable companies are to market and sell each other’s services.
Sprint Nextel Corp., the third-largest U.S. mobile phone provider, and leading U.S. satellite TV company DirecTV asked the FCC to examine the marketing arrangements. Bloomberg News
