Reports that Sprint and T-Mobile could merge have...
Reports that Sprint and T-Mobile could merge have added a new wrinkle to one of the most contested issues on rules for the TV incentive auction -- spectrum aggregation limits, said NAB Executive Vice President Rick Kaplan on the group’s…
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blog Wednesday. “Let’s assume that the FCC is contemplating rules that would ensure that each of the top four wireless carriers has a reasonable shot at acquiring spectrum in the incentive auction,” Kaplan said (http://bit.ly/1bQPfWl). “What happens, then, if those rules are enacted, and Sprint and T-Mobile subsequently reach a deal to merge, but prior to the auction itself? Or, what happens if the two companies participate in the auction independently, benefit from competitive rules designed for them, and then merge with spectrum assets they wouldn’t have had access to had they merged pre-auction?” Kaplan, former chief of the Wireless Bureau, said the association hasn’t staked out a position on spectrum aggregation. But, he said “the rumors of a Sprint/T-Mobile merger seriously raise the stakes for the wireless competition issue; one that has already had more airplay than any other."