AT&T recently changed its policy towards network throttling. (Photo : Reuters)
The Federal Communications Commission finally imposed its regulatory approval over the $48.5 billion AT&T acquisition of DirecTV. The merger will turn AT&T into the largest pay TV provider in the world over 26 million subscribers in the United States alone.
DirectTV, the biggest satellite TV provider in the US, can now offer broadband internet on top of its services due to the merger. On the other hand, AT&T, the second biggest wireless carrier in the US, will benefit from DirecTV's more than 40 million subscribers.
The merger was approved after more than one year review period by the FCC. The stipulations on the deal will be imposed for four years and a set of internal and external officers will make sure that both companies comply with the terms, according to Reuters.
In order to seek approval, AT&T has agreed with FCC that it will expand its high-speed Internet services especially towards educational institutions and low-income households in the US. Another condition imposed by FCC is that AT&T will have to "refrain from imposing discriminatory usage-based allowances or other discriminatory retail terms and conditions on its broadband internet service."
According to The Verge, the deal will make AT&T one of the dominant player in the video streaming industry especially when DirecTV starts to market its NFL Sunday Ticket over its parent network.
The DirecTV acquisition came in just in time as AT&T is slowly losing some of its valued customers. During the first quarter of 2015, the company lost 652,000 fixed phone line customers, 200,000 wireless phone subscribers, 136,000 DSL subscribers and over 22,000 U-Verse video subscribers.
