5 biggest myths (and lies) about the AT&T/T-Mobile deal

1) AT&T and T-Mobile said prices would fall. The FCC said it in its staff report that its analysis suggests prices would instead rise if the merger were completed, since AT&T would eat the cheapest national carrier.

2) AT&T says that the merger would create "many thousands of indirect jobs," because the deal would allow for an expansion of the combined company's network infrastructure. The FCC said that even if AT&T made good on all its proposals, the merger would still result in a net loss of jobs -- both direct and indirect.

3) AT&T’s 4G footprint will only grow if it acquires T-Mobile. The FCC noted that the basis for AT&T's public characterization of its decision to stop at an 80% deployment is a Jan. 3, 2011, internal e-mail from John Stankey, AT&T's business operations chief. In that e-mail Stankey described a meeting with CEO Randall Stephenson in which the company agreed to its 2013 roll-out plan but postponed a decision on its future roll-out for a later date. "A decision not to say 'yes' at a particular moment is not the same as saying 'no' forever," the FCC said in its report. "We cannot agree that Mr. Stankey's e-mail suggests further consideration of LTE deployment had been ruled out, as opposed to left undecided. The record does not support AT&T's claim that ... future consideration of an expanded LTE deployment was a 'slim possibility.'"

4) AT&T said that its merger would increase competition, since regional carriers like MetroPCS and Leap Wireless would add subscriber. The FCC said that its analysis of data provided by the wireless carriers suggests that AT&T and T-Mobile are, in fact, competitors. Many AT&T customers switch to T-Mobile and vice versa, viewing one another as a clear second choice.

5) AT&T also stretched the truth about many smaller points. One of note: The company said its merger with T-Mobile would allow the combined company to make its network more efficient and expand capacity at no additional cost. Another notable claim: AT&T said its data shows that 40% of customers that cancel service due to higher prices will not purchase another cell phone. AT&T said that means the combined company is unlikely to raise prices for fear of losing customers permanently. The FCC had trouble believing either claim, arguing that AT&T is purposefully inflating statistics to make the proposed merger appear better than it actually would be. For the network efficiency argument, the regulator said that AT&T neglected to include the costs of integrating the two networks and phones in its cost assessment. That omission made AT&T's claims of the merger's cost-saving benefits appear far greater than they actually would be. As for the claim that droves of customers would drop their service and never buy a cell phone again if AT&T raised prices, the FCC called it both "implausible" and "unsupported." AT&T derived that number from its own studies of customers that leave its network, but the FCC said the company's choice in parameters for its calculation were unreasonable.