The FCC will not vote on the pending AT&T + BellSouth merger at its open meeting scheduled for November 3rd. The item was unexpectedly deleted from the meeting's agenda after the two Democrat and two Republican commissioners apparently failed to reach agreement on possible conditions for the merger.
This represents the third postponement of a scheduled FCC vote on the deal.
The fifth FCC commissioner, Robert M. McDowell, recused himself from the vote due to his prior work as Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel for the Competitive Telecommunications Association (CompTel).
http://www.fcc.gov
- On October 11, the U.S. Department of Justice approved the pending acquisition of BellSouth by AT&T without imposing any conditions.
- On October 13, AT&T and BellSouth offered a set of concessions to FCC in hopes of getting the merger approved without further conditions.
