AT&T Inc. should be required to offer customers stand-alone broadband — without any obligation to buy entertainment packages — once the phone company buys DirecTV, critics of the acquisition said.
AT&T also should be restricted from charging for accepting Web traffic, Dish Network Corp. and Cogent Communications Holdings Inc. told Federal Communications Commission staff at a meeting, according to a Tuesday filing posted Wednesday on the agency’s website. Douglas County-based Dish offers programming via broadband, and Cogent handles Web traffic for companies including Netflix Inc.
Cogent and Netflix earlier asked for behavioral requirements, or conditions, to be imposed on the company to emerge from the $48.5 billion combination of the biggest U.S. telephone and satellite-TV providers. Cogent and Dish say AT&T would gain an incentive to thwart other video once it acquires Direc TV’s programming; AT&T says it has no wish to do so because that would drive away customers.
The meeting with Dish and Cogent, held Friday, shows requests to ensure the Web video market isn’t harmed by the merger are reaching the agency’s highest levels, because participants included FCC General Counsel Jonathan Sallet and Jim Bird, head of a team that examines transactions. AT&T predicts the deal will close during the current quarter.
