FCC clears Cingular acquisition of AT&T Wireless with conditions

<p>The Federal Communications Commission gave its approval Tuesday to Cingular Wireless LLC's $41 billion acquisition of AT&T Wireless Services Inc., completing the federal regulatory blessing necessary for creation of the country's largest cellphone company.</p><p>Antitrust regulators at the Justice Department had cleared the way for the merger on Monday.</p><p>"Without these divestitures, wireless customers in these markets would have had fewer choices for their wireless telephone service and faced the risk of higher prices, lower quality service and fewer choices for the newest high-speed mobile wireless data services," said R. Hewitt Pate, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's antitrust division.</p><p>Both agencies, however, set conditions for the merger that would give Atlanta-based Cingular about 47.6 million subscribers. That would top Verizon Wireless, the current market leader with 40.4 million customers as of midyear, while paring the number of national cell phone providers to five.</p><p>The FCC will require the agency to divest assets in 22 markets in at least eight states. Among them: Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arkansas and Texas.</p><p>Under the agreement with the Justice Department filed in federal court in Washington, Cingular must divest itself of the new combined company's assets in 11 states. The settlement requires the merged company to divest assets in parts of Connecticut, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Michigan, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. These assets include wireless services businesses and radio wave spectrum licenses.</p><p>Cingular is a joint venture between BellSouth Corp. and SBC Communications Inc. Combined, Cingular and AT&T Wireless have about 70,000 employees, although layoffs are expected.</p>