The widespread assumption that all would be plain sailing for Sprint Corp in getting US approvals for its alliance with France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom AG following the consent decree with the US Justice Department has been soundly knocked on the head by Reed Hundt, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, who told the Wall Street Journal that federal regulators still had concerns over the alliance, and that approval of the venture was not seen in the immediate future. He says the Commission’s examination of the venture is somewhere in the middle of the process, and there are a number of twists andturns and obstacles as far as the parties are concerned – and they are well aware of that. Speaking in Brussels, he said concerns have grown since the French government decided to postpone privatisation of state-owned France Telecom.
