AT&T's Big Bet on Spectrum Folly

[Commentary] Every time Federal Communications Commission Chief Julius Genachowski touts the Administration's broadband plan, the looming wireless crisis becomes more dire. He told an audience in North Carolina last month: "The spectrum crunch is real. If we don't do something about it we'll face lousy service and sky-high consumer prices." He won't like it, but he pretty much got what he was asking for with AT&T's proposal to buy T-Mobile, which the parties are selling precisely as a cure to the crunch Chairman Genachowski keeps going on about. It would be vulgar to say that official Washington and various "public interest" groups now are wetting themselves in anticipation of politically torturing the AT&T deal, which would merge the second and fourth biggest mobile providers. The parties, however, obviously like their regulatory chances. They undoubtedly have their eyes on a Republican Congress. They have Mr. Genachowski's own words about a looming spectrum crisis. They also have his own Hindenburg of a solution foundering in Congress even as the AT&T deal runs the gauntlet of political approval.