Coalition forms to oppose AT&T merger

A coalition launched to fight the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile. The No Takeover Project is led by Sprint, the Rural Cellular Association, the New America Foundation, the Center for Media Justice, Public Knowledge, the Media Access Project and the Rural Telecommunications Group.

The coalition could grow to include additional companies who are still getting a sense of how the merger will affect them, according to representatives. No Takeover held its first press conference and rolled out a website and Twitter feed a day before the mega-merger faces its first test on Capitol Hill at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Antitrust subcommittee. The website features an old man smoking a cigar while adorned in a short pink dress, having raided the closet of the young woman in T-Mobile's signature ads. It includes links so that visitors can contact the Federal Communications Commission and contact their member of Congress. The group makes four main arguments, including that the merger reduces competition, hurts industry, hurts the economy and that AT&T already has enough spectrum. The group disputed the notion that the deal will benefit consumers.