Khom Traffic Major

The Federal Communications Commission has approved a $1.9-billion AT&T buy of tuner spectrum licenses owned by San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc.

The buy gives AT&T moderate over licenses that, according to the FCC, “cover more than 300 million people nationwide, including more than 70 million people in five of the peak 15 metropolitan areas (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco).”

The FCC’s decision on the spectrum flock was positioned to exist delayed into future twelvemonth equally the regulatory means was reviewing both AT&T’s proposed Qualcomm buy4 and the proposed $39-billion takeover of T-Mobile USA together — that was until AT&T expended its T-Mobile plans on Monday.

In its approval of the Qualcomm deal, the FCC told Thursday that AT&T cannot employment the spectrum in a mode that would negatively affect other carriers employing or roaming on nearby tuner1 airwaves.

The FCC said that, given that AT&T is the largest phone companionship in the U.S. and the second-largest mobile carrier, concerns of competitive harm were looked at, only any resulting harm wouldn’t “outweigh the public interest benefits of this transaction,” the FCC pronounced in the order.