By Joe Arico | Thu Jan 26, 2012 3:14 pm |
The Dallas, Texas-based company's CEO Randall Stephenson sounded off about the FCC during a quarterly financial conference call. Stephenson said the FCC is picking the "winners and losers" of the mobile industry with the deals it approves and denies, calling the agency's rulings inconsistent."Our biggest problem is identifying what the rules are," Stephenson said. "It's figuring out how much we're allowed to buy. The rules are so fluid, you can drink out of them right now." AT&T reported losses of nearly $7 billion dollars for the fourth quarter, largely because of the break-up fee it will have to pay T-Mobile as result of the failed merger. The carrier also said that without the added spectrum it does not have a solution to get mobile broadband to rural America. The collapse of the merger not only leaves AT&T without T-Mobile's spectrum, but it also lost a $1 billion of its own spectrum as part of the break-up fee. AT&T said it's now strapped when it comes to data capacity, which is what lead it to raise the prices of its data plans last week. AT&T will now have to look in other areas if it wants to add spectrum to its network. Verizon is awaiting approval of agreements it has reached with cable companies for spectrum, and Stephenson said he is watching closely. AT&T will likely attempt to pull off deals for spectrum with cable companies that are similar to Verizon's, which will help the carrier as it builds out its LTE network. However, the company's failed purchase of T-Mobile has left its network with a hole that will be difficult to patch up. Regardless of how AT&T got into its current spectrum predicament, the company must take steps to turn things around if it wants to compete with Verizon. But with the FCC, it faces what it believes is a formidable opponent to its growth.
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