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US: The FCC is about to approve the AT&T-DirecTV deal

By  |  July 21, 2015

US Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler on Tuesday circulated an order to approve, with conditions, AT&T Inc’s bid to buy DirecTV for $48.5 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The merger, which has been under the FCC’s review for months, would combine the country’s No. 2 wireless carrier with the largest satellite-TV provider.

The FCC is expected to impose conditions on the merger related to Internet access by both middle-class and low-income Americans, data use, web traffic delivery and a monitoring process to ensure that conditions are properly enforced.

The sources spoke anonymously because the order is not public.

FCC’s four other commissioners would need to vote in coming days to formally approve the deal. The Justice Department must also approve it for the transaction to go forward.

Full content: The Wall Street Journal

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