Free Press Commends Sen. Kohl for Urging Careful Review of Verizon-SpectrumCo Deal
WASHINGTON -- On Thursday, Sen. Herb Kohl sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski and Attorney General Eric Holder urging them to carefully consider the competitive harms of Verizon's proposed deal to buy spectrum from SpectrumCo, a group of the nation's largest cable companies.
Free Press Policy Adviser Joel Kelsey made the following statement:
“We thank Sen. Kohl for his thorough review of this deal and for recognizing the ways in which it would harm consumers. The senator rightly concluded that this deal would have a serious negative impact on competition and skew the telecommunications market for years to come.
“In a wireless marketplace already hurtling toward duopoly, the proposed transaction would put too much spectrum into the hands of Verizon Wireless. This in turn would choke smaller rivals' ability to provide lower-cost alternatives to consumers and kill any chance for competition between Verizon and the cable cartel."
