Former FCC chairman: 'AT&T is certain to lose' DOJ lawsuit

Former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt said that AT&T has no hope of prevailing in court against the Department of Justice's lawsuit blocking its proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA.

"AT&T is certain to lose," said Hundt, who oversaw the implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the first major overhaul of the nation's telecom laws in nearly 62 years, under President Bill Clinton. "They can litigate the case to death" but it will not do any good, he said. Hundt said almost no one on Wall Street understood that AT&T's pursuit of T-Mobile was not tenable because it was clearly anti-competitive. Several analysts have expressed confidence in the transaction's approval, including one as recently as Aug. 16. "It's an extremely easy case," he said. "The Department of Justice will win the case in court. No question about it." Asked whether the Justice Department's scrutiny of competition on a national basis, rather than market by market as AT&T had expected, would hold up in court, Hundt said competition for wireless service is local and national and will be considered as such.