President Biden has been calling on Congress to extend funding for the ACP and in the meanwhile, the current administration is being supported by 14 carriers – Allo Fiber, Altafiber (and Hawaiian Telcom), Astound Broadband, AT&T, Comcast, Cox Communications, IdeaTek, Mediacom Communications, MLGC, Optimum, Spectrum (Charter Communications), Starry, Verizon and Vermont Telephone Company – in providing a broadband plan for $30 per month or less to about 10 million ACP households until the end of 2024.
T-Mobile didn’t volunteer to offer ACP subscribers lower rates and Blair Levin, currently the policy advisor to New Street Research and formerly a lawyer with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), believes this is part of its strategy to gain approval for its proposed acquisition, reports Light Reading.
The voters will decide whether the [T-Mobile/UScellular] deal will be judged by Biden or Trump appointed officials. If Biden wins, we now think that a Democratic majority FCC may require a specific T-Mobile commitment to serve low-income households. So here, T-Mobile may be holding back from offering a more attractive package for low-income households … until it needs it for approval of the deal.” – Blair Levin
Democrats have blamed House Republicans for refusing to work with them to re-fund the ACP. This indicates that Republicans are not as interested as Democrats in bringing back the program, meaning if Trump wins, a commitment to a subsidized internet program will probably not be a part of the approval process.
If Trump wins, we don’t think a low-income commitment will be part of the approval process but there may be other factors that affect the economics of the transaction.” – Blair Levin
Further complicating matters is T-Mobile‘s 800MHz auction process, which will happen later this year. When T-Mobile bought Sprint in 2020, the company and regulators agreed to help Dish succeed Sprint as America’s fourth nationwide carrier. To that end, Dish was to buy 800MHz spectrum from T-Mobile.
With Dish spiraling toward bankruptcy, it will no longer be able to buy the 800MHz licenses. T-Mobile will now have to auction that $3.59 billion worth of spectrum and if it’s unable to find a seller, it may have to divest it if it exceeds the FCC’s spectrum screen.
