FCC Slaps Protective Order on AT&T / T-Mobile Documents
Apr 27, 2011, 6:46 PM by Eric M. Zeman
The Federal Communications Commission today issued a protective order that will block access to much of the information regarding AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile. The FCC wrote, "We adopt [these] procedures to provide more limited access to certain especially competitively sensitive information that may be filed in this proceeding, which, if released to competitors or those with whom the Submitting Party does business, would allow those persons to gain a significant advantage in the marketplace or in negotiations. We anticipate that such materials will be necessary to develop a more complete record on which to base the Commission's decision. While we are mindful of the highly sensitive nature of such information, we are also mindful of the right of the public to participate in this proceeding in a meaningful way." Earlier this week, Sprint requested that the FCC allow it to see some of the documents in question. Sprint hired an outside law firm, which has signed confidentiality agreements, to seek access to the documents. Today's protective order specifies that access to these documents is limited to the participants' "Outside Counsel of Record, their Outside Consultants and experts whom they retain to assist them in this proceeding, and their Outside Counsel's and Outside Consultants' employees." The participants, in this case, are AT&T and T-Mobile. It is possible that today's order will effectively block Sprint from ever accessing the documents. Sprint strongly opposes the acquisition.
more info at FCC (PDF) »
more info at Bloomberg »
Related
AD
Comments
This forum is closed.
