Washington DC – Signaling the tail end of a regulatory process that hasn’t been going AT&T’s way for some time, the telecom giant made formal the abandonment of plans to acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telecom. The announcement comes on the heels of a CA Public Utilities Commission investigation in July and August of 2011, a Department of Justice announcement of opposition to the merger on anti-competitive grounds and the Federal Communications Commision’s refusal to approve the merger without an investigation. Continue reading AT&T / T-Mobile Merger Bites the Dust→
Contact: Tracy Rosenberg, Executive Director, Media Alliance (510) 684-6853
California Public Utilities Commission Suspends Approval of AT&T –T-Mobile Merger.
Commission Votes 5-0 to Open an Informational Proceeding on Impacts to the State of California
San Francisco, CA – On Thursday May 26, the California Public Utilities Commission responded to notification by AT&T of their proposed merger with T-Mobile by suspending automatic 30-day approval of the plan and agreeing to move forward with an informational proceeding on the impact of the merger on California consumers. The action was taken in response to a request from Sprint. Continue reading California Public Utilities Commission Suspends Approval of AT&T /T-Mobile Merger→
Prometheus vs. FCC, the decade-old lawsuit that sought to prevent the loosening of the cross-ownership rules that prevented one entity from owning too many newspapers and broadcast outlets in the same town, returned to court as the FCC wrangled with the DC Courts about diversity surveys called Quadrennial Reviews that the agency hasn’t done and debated whether the increasingly dated rules needed to be strengthened, loosened or overhauled entirely. Media Alliance is a plaintiff in the case. Continue reading Media Cross-Ownership Rules Upheld by FCC→
Update: Sadly, Catherine was not re-nominated by Governor Jerry Brown. A big loss for California’s consumers.
Catherine Sandoval is one of the most qualified commissioners to ever serve on the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). The first person of Latino descent to serve on the agency in its 100-year history, she has been a determined public interest advocate and fighter for real people against the massive corporate interests the agency regulates. Continue reading PUC Needs Consumer Advocates: Reappoint Sandoval→
The Department of Justice filed suit against DirecTV (commonly known as AT&T after the recent merger) for anti-competitive collusion in violation of antitrust law.
The suit comes as DirecTV parent corporation AT&T has petitioned the Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission for another mega-merger with Time-Warner’s content division. Continue reading DirecTV Sued For Anti-Competitive Collusion→
Nine years after the death and four years after the filing of a petition to deny license renewal by Media Action Center (a fiscally sponsored project of Media Alliance), the FCC has finally convened a hearing on the 2007 death of Jennifer Strange.
The Bay View newspaper, a reliable source of hard hitting reporting and a much-requested item in prisons across the country, is undergoing a series of official and unofficial bannings as prison strike activism continues. Continue reading Un-Ban The Bayview→
San Mateo – On Wednesday May 15th, three San Mateo Community College board trustees approved an unseen contract with Locuspoint Networks, a 99%-owned subsidiary of hedge firm The Blackstone Group, to liquidate the 48-year-old noncommercial TV station KCSM in a spectrum auction. Continue reading SMCCD Board Liquidates KCSM-TV→
