Verizon Latest to Oppose Incompas Motion to Modify Protective Orders of Past Deals

Verizon opposed an Incompas motion to modify FCC protective orders for reviews of past transactions. Noting it agreed with previous objections filed by AT&T, Charter Communications and Comcast (see 1707280026), Verizon said the motion "could make public the highly sensitive business information of third parties like Verizon who, in response to Commission requests, submitted highly confidential and confidential information." There's "no legal justification or sound policy basis to justify making this highly sensitive business information available in the Restoring Internet Freedom proceeding," said the telco's opposition Tuesday in docket 17-108. It said Incompas "improperly filed this Motion only in the Restoring Internet Freedom proceeding and not in the respective transaction dockets in which the protective orders were issued." Incompas formally responded last week to the previous oppositions (see 1708040058). Incompas referred us Wednesday to a statement by CEO Chip Pickering regarding the previous oppositions: "We must have a full and complete net neutrality record. Cable and AT&T’s apocalyptic overreaction to our request for merger information, already available at the FCC, clearly shows they have something to hide. The courts are destined to review any FCC order, and it doesn’t take Matlock to see cable and AT&T want to hide evidence that will show both the means and the motive to do harm to consumers and competition in the event net neutrality protections are off the books. A closed process threatens to close the internet."