March 19-25: Is There Anything Else to Talk About?

Our Headlines have been dominated all week by AT&T's proposal to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion -- so much so, you may ask, Is there really anything else to write about it? Not to be too redundant, here's a look at what we've been reading this past week. Ryan Chittum at the Columbia Journalism Review noted that early coverage of this deal has done a good job of emphasizing:

• the bold consolidation the deal would entail,
• a very distinct impression that this deal could be bad news for consumers, and
• a bold test of just how weak antitrust enforcement has really gotten in the US.

AT&T and Deutsche Telekom announced the deal on March 20 just ahead of the US wireless industry's annual confab in Florida. AT&T would gain T-Mobile's 34 million wireless subscribers, network infrastructure and spectrum licenses (AT&T would increase its spectrum holdings by almost 60 percent.). Deutsche Telekom will get an approximately 8 percent (but no less than 5 percent) ownership interest in AT&T -- and a seat on AT&T's board. Here's the benefits the companies are promising from the deal.