Public Interest Community Responds to AT&T Filing

After AT&T filed with the Federal Communications Commission its statement regarding its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA, the pubic interest community reacted.

"Justice Department and FCC approval of this merger would be a decision to make mobile broadband duopoly inevitable, harming consumers in the long run. The government cannot seriously consider approving such extreme consolidation in the wireless industry at a time when the FCC has only just begun to address the serious gaps in competition policy that already put smaller, rural and regional carriers at a severe disadvantage to AT&T and Verizon," said Michael Calabrese, Director of New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative (OTI) Wireless Future Project. "In addition to higher prices and less choice for consumers, the merger is guaranteed to cost thousands of employees their jobs at a time when the nation's economy is struggling to create new jobs, let alone make up for the massive job losses that have happened over the past 10 years. Both consumers and American workers would benefit far more from a real focus by the Obama Administration and the FCC to create policies to promote more competition in the wireless market, including mobile device interoperability and spectrum caps, rather than approve a merger that would further hobble the very limited competition that exists today," added Benjamin Lennett, Senior Policy Analyst for the Open Technology Initiative (OTI).

Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn said, “Over the next few weeks and months, AT&T will spend millions of dollars to persuade the government and the American people that their takeover of T-Mobile is in the public interest. They will hire faculties worth of economists who will produce libraries worth of “research.” They will donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to outside groups. They will equip themselves with battalions of outside lobbyists, including prominent former members of Congress and will spend millions more in campaign and other contributions. They will blanket the airwaves with ads. All of that effort and all of that money cannot disguise the simple, fundamental fact that AT&T in this one transaction will fundamentally reshape the wireless industry in ways that will hurt consumers, raising prices, restricting innovation and limiting choice. The plain fact is that every one of the benefits AT&T promised to achieve can be accomplished without this merger. Every time someone sees or hears an AT&T ad, or sees or hears someone defend this deal, they should think about how AT&T is simply reducing the number of national carriers from four to three. And they should also think how much better AT&T’s service would be if that money was invested in their network and service.”

“No matter how many high-priced lobbying firms AT&T hires, it won't be able to fool Americans into thinking the reconstitution of the Ma Bell monopoly is a good thing. Make no mistake, this deal is about eliminating a competitor and nothing more. AT&T has chosen the marketing slogan ‘Mobilize Everything’ to sell this competition-killing deal, but it's clear their real goal is to ‘Monopolize Everything,’" said Free Press Research Director S. Derek Turner. "This merger would cost jobs at a time when unemployment is still at record levels; it would result in higher prices and fewer choices for consumers; and it would stifle innovation and investment in the wireless market. AT&T is falling back on its tired claim that this merger would give it the opportunity to improve service and deployment of its wireless network, but the fact is AT&T doesn't need to merge with anyone to remedy the problems it created for itself by chronically under-investing in its network. It's already sitting on plenty of unused spectrum, and it continues to earn record profits. It's simply a false choice to ask Americans to pay higher prices, endure poor customer service and sacrifice innovation in exchange for fulfilling deployment promises that AT&T has already made. If antitrust has any meaning left in America, then the FCC and the Department of Justice must find that a new national wireless duopoly will cause significant harm and must swiftly reject this unthinkable plan to restore Ma Bell.”

Parul P. Desai, policy counsel for Consumers Union, said, “We routinely hear a lot of complaints from wireless customers about high prices, hidden charges and poor customer service, and it's hard to see how AT&T buying T-Mobile would improve the situation. We have long sought reform on a number of issues to help promote a marketplace that fosters consumer choice and fair prices, such as interoperability and access to broadband infrastructure. We feel that these should be addressed to facilitate competition in the wireless marketplace before ruling on this transaction.”

"No amount of AT&T spin can change the facts: approval of the AT&T/T-Mobile merger would create a wireless duopoly, with two companies sharing 80% of the market. It would raise prices, while stifling economic growth and innovation, and swelling the ranks of the unemployed. The Justice Department and the FCC should tell AT&T to spend its $39 billion dollars on improving its network rather than crippling T-Mobiles," said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, Senior Vice President and Policy Director of the Media Access Project.