Verizon/TracFone Merger Now Has a Clearer Path to FCC Approval

Pending before the FCC is Verizon's proposed acquisition of TracFone, a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that had 21 million subscribers at the end of 2020. MVNOs aren't facilities-based providers. Rather, they purchase wireless network on a wholesale basis from facilities-based providers like AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon and then they resell those services to consumers. Prepaid wireless service offerings by MVNOs have been especially popular with cost-conscious consumers. 

On August 13, I was quoted in Communications Daily in response to news that many prior opponents of Verizon/TracFone are now supportive of the merger because of pledges Verizon has made to provide continuing services with the Lifeline program. Leaving aside the issue of whether those pledges ought to have been necessary or the merits of those pledges, it safe to conclude that the Verizon/TracFone merger would result in economic efficiencies because an acquired TracFone would save on costs of obtaining wireless network services at wholesale. And since the Verizon/TracFone merger would not result in the loss of a facilities-based provider, the FCC's approval of the merger ought to be a foregone conclusion.  Moreover, as I was quoted in saying in CommDaily: "A timely and straightforward FCC decision on Verizon/Tracfone likely would make any state PUC reviews go more smoothly, given that state regulatory assertions of authority over wireless mergers already are on thin legal ground in light of Section 332 of the Communications Act."