AT&T-BellSouth merger faces longer delay

The $81 billion merger of AT&T and BellSouth won’t take place for at least another 10 days after the Federal Communications Commission vote scheduled for today was postponed by the two Democratic commissioners, Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein.

The pair asked FCC Chairman Kevin Martin in a letter to delay the vote to allow the FCC to consider conditions to place on the merger. The letter was in part a response to the Department of Justice decision earlier this week to approve the merger without imposing any anti-trust conditions. Under FCC rules, the vote will be delayed by at least 10 days.

In their letter, Copps and Adelstein said more than 10,000 parties have requested scrutiny of the merger and cited a flood of comments since the DoJ decision, many from competitive service providers who fear they will be cut off from access to local loops. They asked for time to consider the conditions being sought and for public comment to be made. In his response to the Copps-Adelstein letter, Martin accepted the need to consider comments but also pressed to expedite a vote.

Martin is believe to need the votes of the Democrats to approve the merger because one of the three Republican commissioners – Robert McDowell – is expected to recuse himself because of his previous history working for competitive service providers. Republican Deborah Taylor Tate is expected to vote with Martin in favor of the merger.