Sources: Votes Are In, and Its 5-0 for Verizon/SpectrumCo

Order expected to be released late Wednesday or Thursday

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/22/2012 1:18:24 PM

According to sources inside and outside the FCC, all five commissioners have now cast their votes on Verizon/SpectrumCo, and it will be 5-0 approving Verizon's purchase of spectrum from cable operators Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox and Bright House, with the two Republicans concurring in part.

According to a source who had seen the voting record, Democratic Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn have joined the others in okaying the deal, though both were said to be working on statements at presstime, so the order may not be released until late Wednesday or Thursday.

While the vote was 5-0, the two Republicans concurred--stopping short of approving--a data roaming obilgation in the order, as well the FCC's authority over the marketing agreements, according to sources.

The FCC was said to be working on two big items Wednesday, the spectrum deal and its inquiry into potential reregulation of the special access market, with the latter likely to come out Wednesday or Thursday as well.

The Justice Department has already signed off on the deal, with conditions that the FCC had a hand in crafting. FCC chairman Julius Genachowski had signaled he supported the deal with those conditions as a way to get 20 MHz of spectrum lying fallow in the secondary market into use ASAP delivering next generation wireless broadband.

The FCC just missed meeting its informal 180-day shot clock on vetting mergers. That clock was reading 181 days at presstime, but has not yet been stopped.