Priming itself for the age of Internet-delivered video, AT&T Inc. on Sunday, May 18, 2014 said it would buy DirecTV for $48.5 billion in cash and stock, or $95 per share.
Advertisement
The FCC said Tuesday that Wheeler circulated his order to the four other commissioners and that it is up to them to either approve of it or not.
If approved by the five-member Commission, it would provide a “competitive high-speed fiber connection” to 12.5 million customer locations.
The company will have to submit regular reports on “network performance” to the FCC.
Wheeler also said that an independent officer would help ensure compliance with the conditions. And the deal will allow AT&T to offer a much more varied menu of services to potential customers. “These strong measures will protect consumers, expand high-speed broadband availability, and increase competition”, he said.
The Justice Department has already approved the merger so the FCC’s permission is the final hurdle before the deal can be closed.
Update: AT&T has now issued a statement announcing the U.S. Department of Justice has “completed its review” of the deal, and saying “we look forward to gaining the approval of the Federal Communications Commission so we can quickly begin providing consumers with the benefits of this combination”. Netflix in particular has complained about having to pay large costs to Internet service providers like AT&T to transfer its video from the backbone of the Internet to the last mile where companies like AT&T pick it up and route it to customers.
The FCC is expected to impose conditions on the merger related to Internet access by both middle-class and low-income Americans, data use, web traffic delivery and a monitoring process to ensure that conditions are properly enforced.
The news comes a few months after the proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable fell through amid concerns from regulators that the new business would harm online video competition.
Advertisement
“The merger will unite one of the nation’s most powerful telecommunications companies with one of its leading pay-TV services”.
