AT&T will “probably” be able to close its...
AT&T will “probably” be able to close its buyout of Leap Wireless this month, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said Thursday at a Morgan Stanley investor conference. The carriers are awaiting FCC approval of the deal, which industry observers say is…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
likely to occur soon (CD March 4 p2). AT&T plans to bring Leap’s Cricket prepaid service nationwide “overnight” once the deal closes, Stephenson said. “We are going to be fairly aggressive here.” AT&T has said it will fold its existing Aio Wireless prepaid service into Leap’s Cricket service post-buyout. Leap’s AWS spectrum, meanwhile, “will pair very nicely with the Aloha transaction we just announced end of last year,” Stephenson said. “So we've got a very nice footprint at the AWS level.” AT&T said in January they would buy 49 AWS-1 licenses from Aloha Partners (CD Jan 8 p10). AT&T reported in two ex parte filings on additional discussions with FCC staff about the proposed deal. “In particular, we discussed rate plans that AT&T intends to offer upon launch of the New Cricket; AT&T’s spectrum holdings in various [markets]; AT&T’s LTE deployment; and AT&T’s plans to deploy Leap’s AWS and PCS spectrum to enhance AT&T’s LTE network,” said one of the filings (http://bit.ly/1cFOKNe). A second discussion focused on “Leap’s indirect, minority ownership interest in Flat Wireless,” a filing said (http://bit.ly/1gVzOx9).