FCC Delays Vote on AT&T-BellSouth Merger

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7:35 am on October 14, 2006 | Category: Business, Telecom Services, Regulation

America’s Federal Communications Commission has delayed a vote on AT&T’s $80.8 billion merger with BellSouth, due to the requests of two Democratic commissioners.

Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps requested in a recent letter that the public be given additional time to review and comment on the proposed merger conditions.

“Given the limited analysis from our leading antitrust authorities, it is all the more imperative that we now employ an open process to fully involve affected parties,” the Democrats said in a letter to FCC Chairman, Kevin Martin.

Martin accommodated the request, saying that he has “instructed staff to place these proposals out for public comment for a period of 10 days.”

The FCC vote is the final hurdle for AT&T and BellSouth to overcome before finalizing the merger deal, which will see a total of about 67.2 million telephone lines and 57.3 million Cingular Wireless subscribers under a single corporate umbrella.