Reviewing Wireless Mergers Providing Clarity on How to Evaluate Competition, Efficiency, and the “Public Interest”

The Federal Communications Commission can improve the transparency of its decision process by establishing a set of guidelines for its review of mergers. Its current process is opaque, and parties cannot discern the weights that it places on “public interest” goals in some areas and how those balance against harms in other areas. The antitrust agencies’ Merger Guidelines provide an example of how the Commission could signal more clearly its analytical process and push for more efficient remedies and lessen political pressure to undertake inefficient trade-offs such as requiring build out to areas unaffected by changes in competition due to a merger.