C Spire sues competitors in anti-trust action

Published 9:25 am Friday, June 1, 2012

The defendants have filed motions — the most recent on May 24 — asking a federal judge to throw out the complaint on grounds that C Spire failed to provide any evidence of a conspiracy. They also said the federal court in north Mississippi has no jurisdiction over the case because the technical disputes raised by C Spire are before the Federal Communications Commission in a rulemaking claim that C Spire itself initiated.

C Spire filed the lawsuit in Aberdeen, Miss., in April under its former name of Cellular South. It contends the defendants conspired to keep it from developing a 4G LTE service network and from getting access to devices like smartphones and tablet computers that can utilize 4G LTE technology.

C Spire, which is based in Ridgeland, Miss., has subscribers in Mississippi as well as the Memphis, Tenn., Mobile, Ala., and Pensacola, Fla. areas. C Spire has announced plans to debut 4G capability in September in 20 Mississippi markets before bringing it to other parts of its service area, including portions of Alabama, Tennessee and Florida.

C Spire alleges it can’t get access to devices like smartphones and tablet computers that can utilize 4G LTE technology.

In their dismissal motions, the defendants say C Spire’s claims amount to a disagreement with the process, not anything that can hold up in court.

In 2008, C Spire, AT&T and other carriers bought frequency spectrum licenses at auction from the FCC, the lawsuit says.

C Spire paid about $192 million for its spectrum licenses with the understanding, “except perhaps (to) AT&T and the other defendants” that the spectrum band, known as Band 12, would be used by large and smaller carriers alike, the lawsuit claims.

However, AT&T, Motorola and Qualcomm used their influence on a group tasked with creating competitively neutral rules for wireless carriers to establish a separate frequency band, known as Band 17, “for AT&T’s private use,” the suit claims. That group, known as the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, is not named as a defendant in C Spire’s lawsuit.

C Spire alleges AT&T and the other defendants used “their power within 3GPP to tilt the technological rules in AT&T’s favor” and delay the use of Band 12, especially as C Spire petitioned the FCC for interoperability of devices in Band 12 spectrum.

Band 17 would create incompatibility among those devices, the lawsuit states.

The defendants, in their motions to dismiss, say the 3GPP process was legitimate.

It’s not the first legal battle between the companies. C Spire and Sprint last year sued to stop a proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile, saying smaller carriers couldn’t fairly compete with the planned new company.

The merger, which also was heavily scrutinized and criticized by the federal government, ultimately was shelved.

Last October, Apple Inc. announced C Spire Wireless would sell the iPhone 4S. Industry analysts called in a major coup for the small company. At that time, only the three biggest carriers sold the iPhone in the U.S. C Spire bypassed the rest, including T-Mobile USA and U.S. Cellular, in getting the right to sell it.