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 STATEMENT  OF  COMMISSIONER  MICHAEL  J.  COPPS 
 RE:  Applications  of  Western  Wireless  Corporation  and  ALLTEL  Corporation  For  Consent  to  Transfer  of  Control  of  Licenses  and  Authorizations  (Memorandum  Opinion  &  Order). 
 The  data  compiled  by  FCC  staff  indicates  that  effectuation  of  this  merger  will  likely  leave  an  acceptable  level  of  wireless  market  competition  in  most  affected  geographic  areas.  The  applicants’ 
 networks  overlap  in  only  27  markets  nationwide.  The  Commission  requires  divestiture  of  nearly  60%  of  these  markets,  where  the  merger  would  have  undermined  competition. 


 In  most  of  the  remaining  overlap  markets  four  or  more  able  competitors  will  continue  to  compete  post-  merger.  In  the  rest  the  merger  will  not  substantially  change  the  competitive  dynamic  of  the  market  at 
 issue  because  one  applicant  has  little  or  no  market  share.  I  am  concerned  that  in  a  few  markets,  the  market  shares  of  remaining  competitors  are  small  compared  with  that  of  the  merged  entity.  But  these 
 competitors  have  spectrum  resources  and  built-  out  facilities  that  should  enable  them  to  take  customers  from  the  merged  entity  should  the  latter  raise  prices  or  reduce  quality.  But  if  we  receive  evidence  in  the 
 future  that  smaller  competitors  cannot  respond  in  this  way  because  of  the  power  of  the  market-  share  leader,  the  Commission  will  have  to  reconsider  its  reliance  on  this  theory,  which  remains  untested  in  the 
 new  wireless  environment. 
 This  market-  by-  market  analysis  is  only  one  part  of  our  merger  review  process.  The  FCC  must  also  judge  whether  the  merged  entity  will  act  in  the  public  interest  and  whether  the  applicants  have  the 
 requisite  “citizenship,  character,  financial,  technical,  and  other  qualifications.”  Compliance  with  public  safety  protections  is  central  to  the  public  interest  and  to  a  company’s  qualifications.  Americans 
 increasingly  rely  on  mobile  phones  for  emergency  calls.  Therefore  compliance  with  our  911  rules  is  of  the  utmost  importance,  especially  at  a  time  when  homeland  security  must  be  a  top  priority  for  both  our 
 government  and  our  companies  and  the  threats  to  public  safety  are  again  so  manifest.  FCC  Rules  require  that  by  December  31,  2005  ninety-  five  percent  of  the  applicants’  customers  must  have  handsets  that  can 
 locate  a  caller  in  an  emergency.  I  am  deeply  troubled  by  the  applicants’  recent  admission  that  they  will  likely  fail  to  meet  this  responsibility  and  that  they  may,  in  fact,  miss  our  public  safety  deadline  by  two 
 years. 
 The  Order  states  that  if  the  company  fails  to  meet  its  E-  911  deployment  responsibilities  the  Commission  “will  not  hesitate  to  take  enforcement  action.”  While  that  is  positive,  I  believe  we  should  have  gone 
 beyond  this  assertion  to  insist  that  the  merged  company  immediately  get  itself  on  a  path  to  full  public  safety  compliance.  Because  we  do  not,  we  could  lose  valuable  time  and  E-  911  deployment  might  suffer. 
 I  am  disappointed  that  we  do  not  do  more  today  to  ensure  compliance  with  our  public  safety  deadline. 
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