CPUC Appoints T-Mobile Compliance Monitor
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) today announced Dr. Douglas Sicker’s appointment as its T-Mobile Compliance Monitor, through an Agreement with the University of Colorado Denver where he is a Senior Associate Dean and Professor. As Compliance Monitor, Sicker will oversee and evaluate whether T-Mobile is satisfying the conditions the CPUC imposed in approving T-Mobile’s acquisition of Sprint in April 2020, and he will recommend penalties in the event he finds the company has failed to meet those conditions.
Because the merger reduced the number of national mobile providers from four to three, the CPUC found that the merger would be in the public interest only if T-Mobile complies with a list of conditions created by the CPUC to protect the interest of California consumers. These include requiring T-Mobile to offer a discounted, low-income service; to deploy fast, 5G service to 99 percent of California’s population; to increase employees in the state; and to roll out a new home broadband service that will compete with incumbent cable television and telephone companies’ Internet services; among other requirements.
Sicker stated, “I’m gratified to be able to assist the CPUC in ensuring that T-Mobile delivers on its obligations to bring the values of next generation wireless communications to the people of California, and I look forward to getting started.”
Commissioner Clifford Rechtschaffen, who is the Assigned Commissioner on the case, welcomed Sicker, saying, “The CPUC will ensure that T-Mobile complies with our merger conditions. Dr. Sicker has an excellent background to help us make sure T-Mobile lives up to its obligations and that the merger yields public interest benefits for California consumers.”
Sicker has served as the Chief Technology Officer of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), where he was also a senior advisor on the FCC’s National Broadband Plan and later as the Chief Technology Officer and Senior Advisor for Spectrum at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). He is currently Senior Associate Dean and Professor at the College of Engineering, Design and Computing at the University of Colorado Denver, and Adjunct Professor at the College of Engineering & School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He has also served as a Department Head, interim Director of CyLab security and privacy research institute, and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to that, Sicker was an Endowed Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Colorado Boulder with a joint appointment in, and director of, its Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program.
About University of Colorado Denver
As Colorado’s only public urban research university, the University of Colorado Denver educates a diverse student body through quality academics, ambitious research and creative work, and civic engagement in the city we call home. Graduates gain the powerful combination of immersive classroom and real-world experiences that are in demand today, while the city benefits from well-educated, top talent and a new generation of knowledge that fuels the future of Denver and our region. We are CU in the city.
About the California Public Utilities Commission
The CPUC regulates services and utilities, protects consumers, safeguards the environment, and assures Californians’ access to safe and reliable utility infrastructure and services. For more information on the CPUC, please visit www.cpuc.ca.gov.
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