also joining us here an the table is amy schatz of "the wall street journal." commissioner, if i could start with the at&t/t-mobile usa acquisition. what do you see as the biggest impediment to that happening, and how long do you see the process taking? >> guest: well, at first, i really don't know how long the process will take. it could be the better part of a year. i don't know that it should take that long, but we'll just have to wait and see with the expectations at the commission are. this is a huge transaction, it's a paradigm-altering transaction insofar as the world of wireless goes. you will remember in the comcast merger that i said at the outset that was a very -- would have been a very steep climb for me. i ended up voting against it. this is maybe even a steeper climb from the standpoint of a lot of power, a lot of influence given to one company in a world where with two companies are going to control, like, 80% of the spectrum. so i would hope that my colleagues in looking at this transaction in the months ahead will be asking themselves some ver

. >> host: and, amy schatz, you have a final question for the commissioner. >> host: actually, it's a follow up on that question. to play devil's advocate, some people would argue already the fcc does so many things behind closed doors and those public meetings are so scripted that it's almost worse to have you around a table deciding things because the public doesn't get involved. >> guest: i don't agree with that because members of congress when they're crafting legislation and bills are talking, members of the court before they decide a supreme court case sit around and talk about it. you have to have some protections. i mean, you wouldn't let three people of one party meet and gang up on the other two. it wouldn't be supersecret. you'd have office of general counsel there, you would have some sort of a record, but it's just the way that you need to do business. why should this be the one institution that effects other executive agencies too? why should they be denied this opportunity to share experiences and perspectives and kind of work stuff out around the table? and i just thin