Consumers Union: Block AT&T, T-Mobile Deal

Parul Desai, policy council for Consumers Union, appears this week on C-SPAN's "The Communicators." She makes clear Consumers Union's stance on AT&T's proposed purchase of T-Mobile: the transaction must be blocked.

"I don't think there are really any conditions that could, at this point, alleviate the harms that would come out of the transaction." "AT&T hasn't shown to me why it would need T-Mobile's assets and spectrum" to achieve its post-merger goal of extending advanced 4G wireless service to 95 percent of the country, she said. "They already have the spectrum [they need]. They just haven't invested [in] or built out that spectrum." While Desai acknowledges that wireless voice prices have gone down in recent years, she said that rates for broadband data plans are on the rise. "If this venture is about mobile broadband, that obviously involves data," she said. Desai also raised concerns about the specter of layoffs, a worry shared by the Communications Workers of America, despite its early endorsement of the deal. "We will obviously be looking at that carefully.