Late yesterday wireless company T-mobile filed a complaint with the Federal Government urging them to block a deal of Verizon buying cellular spectrum space from a collection of cable companies. Previously I had reported about the impending spectrum crunch as there is not enough space for all the wireless data users and the space could reach deficit levels by next year. Well it appears that the all out war between the phone companies for competing spectrum space is on. Verizon was slated to have a deal in the works with cable giants Comcast, Time Warner, Bright House Networks and Cox Communications to purchase a portion of their allotted spectrum within the TV spectrum. T-Mobile claims that this deal would give Verizon an "Excessive concentration" of the wireless spectrum. The deal was a potential $3.6 billion deal between Verizon and before mentioned cable companies. Those in the FCC and congress had raised issue with the agreement especially between the relationship between Comcast and Verizon. Senator Al Franken even released a statement saying "These joint-marketing agreements will turn these rival companies into partners, rather than competitors." Just last year it was T-mobile who was barred from merging with AT&T as it would have created an unfair advantage in the marketplace, now it seems T-mobile is casting those accusations at Verizon. Likely the FCC will bar the deal from taking place, however, this does not mean future deals on a smaller scale will not take place. As the wireless companies scramble to figure out how they are going to deal with the impending spectrum crunch look for the big four wireless companies at each others throats jockeying to secure as much spectrum space as they can get.
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