Sprint Files Opposition to AT&T/T-Mobile at FCC

Federal regulators face a stark choice on AT&T’s $39 billion bid to acquire T-Mobile: Say no and preserve today’s competitive market structure or approve it and put the nation on the path toward a duopoly.

That’s the principle message from Sprint’s petition to deny AT&T’s proposed marriage to T-Mobile. Parties interested in formally opposing the deal must file such petitions at the FCC by the end of May 31. In a 377-page filing, Sprint, the leading foe of the wireless mega-deal, paints a grim scenario for the future of the wireless market if the deal gets approved. If AT&T succeeds, “the Twin Bells’ market dominance would dwarf Sprint, the sole remaining national carrier, and the rest of the wireless industry, thereby creating an entrenched, anti-competitive duopoly,” Sprint wrote. While many of Sprint’s arguments against the deal have been trumpeted already, its petition includes new analyses and challenges to claims that AT&T has made with respect to the deal. The public interest benefits of the transaction that AT&T has claimed, such as relieving network congestion, are illusory, Sprint argues. “If AT&T has capacity constraints, they are the result of its failure to upgrade and invest in its network,” Sprint wrote. Further, Sprint claims that AT&T could deliver broadband to 97 percent of the country — the most widely touted benefit of the deal — by spending a fraction of the $39 billion AT&T plans to pay for T-Mobile. “In the absence of the proposed transaction, competition likely will drive AT&T to reach” the 97 percent target anyway, Sprint posits.