The RCA Loses an R, Gains a C

Battle lines continue to firm up amongst the wireless carriers. This morning the Rural Cellular Association decided to drop the Rural and go with Competitive instead. Under its new name, the Competitive Carriers Association will seek to represent the interests of the rest of the wireless carriers against Verizon Wireless and AT&T.

It’s not exactly a surprise, given the recent way of things.  Clearwire joined earlier this summer, T-Mobile after the AT&T deal died, and Sprint a year earlier. It has been some time since it was really a rural club anyway.  With all the consolidation at the top, what the group has become is a choice-spectrum-have-not club looking to counterbalance the big two.

The FCC’s recent stance toward M&A by Verizon and AT&T has been increasingly antagonistic. The latest move seems to be a review of how the agency measures spectrum dominance in the context of M&A, taking into consideration much of what everyone else already thinks is obvious like the relative usefulness of different spectrum. CCA surely hopes to take advantage of that in some way gain access to more sub-1Ghz spectrum for its members.

But much probably depends on the election, with the Democrats and Republicans seeming clearly at odds over the FCC’s current direction.

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Categories: Government Regulations · Wireless