Letter to House Commerce Committee Chairman Upton and Ranking Member Waxman About AT&T Merger Claims

Free Press sent a letter to House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Ranking Member Henry Waxman (D-CA) disputing claims by AT&T that its proposed merger with T-Mobile would bring broadband to rural Americans more quickly. FP says AT&T's promises exaggerate any minimal benefit associated with the merger.

• First, even if AT&T does not merge with T-Mobile, competitive pressure will force to AT&T to serve these areas with its own LTE network. According to public statements, Verizon’s LTE network will cover these areas in the next several years.2 If AT&T fails to offer the fastest speeds to consumers, there is no doubt that it will lose significant market share to Verizon. Thus, AT&T cannot afford to delay significantly its deployment of LTE.
• Second, all of these areas will be served by AT&T’s “4G” HSPA+ service by the end of 2012. The HSPA+ service will delivers speeds exceeding 7 megabits per second. At that point, the incremental value of the transition to LTE will be negligible: real world speed tests indicate that the difference in downstream speed between 4G HSPA+ and 4G LTE is not particularly significant, and studies suggest that consumers may not perceive significant value in moving from one 4G technology to another.
• Third, even if AT&T never builds out its LTE network to 97% of the population, Verizon’s network will reach those citizens, so they will still have the opportunity to subscribe to LTE service. Thus, the merger is clearly not necessary to bring next-generation broadband to all Americans.