FCC Chairman endorses AT&T and DirecTV merger

Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission declared that he's supporting the $48 billion merging of AT&T and DirecTV. Though, the approval from five of his colleagues is still pending.

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler had passed the $48.5 billion merger of AT&T, the leading telecom company and DirecTV, the digital satellite television. Even though the acquisition is still about to be authorized by a commission consisting of five members and will still undergo regulatory review, Wheeler is ensuing the head start.

A statement by Wheeler was publicized on Ars Technica confirming the news.

"An order recommending that the AT&T/DirecTV transaction be approved with conditions has circulated to the Commissioners. The proposed order outlines a number of conditions that will directly benefit consumers by bringing more competition to the broadband marketplace", Wheeler told Ars Technica.

The merger promises a lot of improvement on video and internet services of the state. It can also lead to larger deals in the future.

Wheeler added, "If the conditions are approved by my colleagues, 12.5 million customer locations will have access to a competitive high-speed fiber connection. This additional build-out is about 10 times the size of AT&T's current fiber-to-the-premise deployment, increases the entire nation's residential fiber build by more than 40 percent, and more than triples the number of metropolitan areas AT&T has announced plans to serve."

The deal was proposed last year with the goal of expanding broadband service to millions AT&T customers delivering content on multiple screens, laptops and smart phones.

In a report from Reuters, the deal may include an Open Internet Order as one of the conditions. Through that, AT&T must allow other associate video partners in their data cap on a fixed broadband connection.

The FCC will assign an official to make sure the conditions are followed.