FCC Invites Input on Amper Sale of Undersea Cable Rights, Other Assets to ATH

The FCC set a pleading cycle on the planned transfer of undersea cable rights and other authorizations from Amper units to Amalgamated Telecom Holdings (ATH). Comments and petitions to deny are due March 1, with replies due March 16 on the proposed transfer of control to ATH of international licenses, wireless licenses, satellite earth station authorizations and a cable landing license held by Amper's AST Telecom (doing business as Bluesky), American Samoa Hawaii Cable (ASHC) and Samoa American Samoa Cable (SASC), said a public notice in docket 16-420 in Tuesday's Daily Digest. The parties also request a foreign ownership declaratory ruling "to permit investment of 100 percent in AST by ATH," a public company of the Republic of Fiji. Amper is a Spanish holding company with a 91.8 percent interest in eLandia International, the Miami-based U.S. direct parent of AST and indirect parent of ASHC and SASC. Another eLandia unit has invested in the American Samoa-Hawaii Cable System that AST operates.