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Opponents Call Wireless Merger Unnecessary, Illegal
The back-and-forth over AT&T’s proposed merger with T-Mobile continued Monday, as opponents filed yet another round of documents at the Federal Communications Commission, arguing that the deal is everything from unnecessary to illegal.
Monday was the final deadline for opponents to file comments with the FCC. Groups had until the end of May to file official petitions to deny with the FCC. AT&T and its supporters responded to those petitions on June 10.
In its highly detailed filing, rival wireless carrier Sprint argued that AT&T could expand its network capacity without acquiring T-Mobile and for a fraction of the merger’s $39 billion price tag.
“AT&T could increase its network capacity by more than 600 percent by 2015 without subjecting the country to the anti-competitive and anti-consumer harms associated with its proposed takeover of T-Mobile,” a Sprint spokesperson said in a statement.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association said AT&T has “failed to refute claims that the merger will result in unprecedented, dangerous market concentration both horizontal and vertical.”
The advocacy group Public Knowledge went as far as to call the merger illegal, and pressed the FCC to block the transaction.
The group also said AT&T has not been honest with lawmakers, promising Congress it would not take Universal Service Fund subsidies, then backtracking in documents filed with the FCC.
“Given the speed with which AT&T’s lawyers rewrote a public pledge under oath before Congress to accept a merger condition to use only ‘private capital’ for its much touted LTE deployment into a ‘voluntary commitment’ while simultaneously asserting its right to apply for the maximum USF subsidy allowable, the FCC must ask how long it will take before AT&T rewrites its other ‘voluntary commitments’ on deployment, network investment, and job creation,” Public Knowledge’s filing states.
Other groups that filed in opposition included Free Press and the Greenlining Institute.
Supporters of the merger fired back in filings and statements of their own.
“By expanding the reach of high speed mobile broadband service to more than 97% of the country, this transaction will help pave the way for more broadband usage, significant economic opportunities and astounding mobile innovation,” said Jonathan Spalter, chairman of Mobile Future, which filed comments with the FCC in favor of the deal.
And Communications Workers of America reiterated its support, saying that a combined AT&T/T-Mobile will benefit workers.
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14 Comments so far
Show All"And Communications Workers of America reiterated its support, saying that a combined AT&T/T-Mobile will benefit workers."
WTF? Usually the first thing that happens after a merger are huge layoffs, but Im sure this merger will be different...
Most unions represent management, not workers.
Most corvo posts are BS.
http://www.cwa-union.org/news/entry/cwa_the_facts_support_attt-mobile_merger
Not in a union yourself, are you Corvo ?
People shouldn't even be using att or t mobile as they use the gsm technology instead of the cdma technology used by verizon and sprint.
The gsm technology produces 28 times more radiation and microwave exposure than the cdma technology.
Especially if your children have cell phones I wouldn't be using the gsm technology due to the increased carcinogenic risks - especially in developing bodies.
Sprint and Verizon, they are the next targets. I remember when our government split up Ma Bell, it was for our own good when ATT was considered a utility and under regulation. Today she's just a rapacious corporate monster seeking dominance and control, now operating with little or no regulation. Only the oversight of her stockholders. Oh happy days!
What do corporations care about legalities when they control how the law is interpreted, how laws are made, and which laws are made?
This merger will go a long way towards ensuring USA'ans continue to pay some of the highest mobile rates in the world.
Anyone who believes that any benefit will accrue to any person or entity but ATT from any action taken by ATT is living in a world of unreality. ATT is the perfect example of corporate "ogredom" dh
Psshhhhh. Sherman Antitrust legislation is so late 19th century. Fuck it, we've moved on to torture and stuff.
Oh no -the U.S. doesn't torture. You mean "enhanced interrogation techniques."
I stand corrected. I can thank the NY Times bullshit conformist policies for that. What ever happened to mainstream media with balls? Their reaction to the Pentagon Papers was the last of its kind. Filthy swine, the lot of them.
@millionmillionaires: "What ever happened to mainstream media with balls?"
ummm....., weren't they kinda bought out and merged away over the decades with the help of some guv't group, the FCC, lookin' the other way??
@Donkey Hote:
Whadda ya mean, 'no benefit'?
Just ask the major shareholders of ATT and T-Mobile.