Sprint and Clearwire wasted no time responding to AT&T's request to deny the planned joint venture between the two companies. Last week, AT&T said that the Sprint/Clearwire venture would eventually use spectrum leased from schools, cities and non-profits and that the planned venture hadn't fully accounted for that spectrum in its proposed merger. AT&T said that when it purchased Dobson Communications last year the FCC took into account all the spectrum that AT&T hadn't accessed yet.
In its response, Sprint and Clearwire said that nearly 100 parties including educational and religious institutions, have filed comments urging the FCC to approve this transaction. The companies said that this proves that the public interest weighs in favor of this merger. In addition, because the 2.5 MHz spectrum has historically been under-utilized, many commentators are in favor of using this spectrum. They believe that the merger will lower costs for consumers by providing new products and services based upon WiMAX.
Sprint and Clearwire also said that they thought it was ironic that AT&T, the largest telecom company in the world, wants to invoke in applicable regulatory restraints that would stifle and delay Clearwire.
For more:
- see this Sprint/Clearwire FCC filing
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