back to article FCC slips dagger into AT&T, T-Mobile merger

The US Federal Communications Commission has thrown a major stumbling block in the way of AT&T's proposed $39bn acquisition of T-Mobile by taking the unusual step of requesting an administrative hearing on the merger. Such administrative hearings are rare, and as The Wall Street Journal points out, the last time such a step …

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  1. ratfox
    Stop

    I have yet to hear...

    Of a merger that created jobs.

    1. Jdoe1
      Thumb Down

      At&T's idea of creating jobs is putting their name on ex T-mobile's employees paychecks. Of course what will end up happening is redundant jobs cease to exist.

  2. Notas Badoff

    Astonishing

    "Surprising no one, AT&T also used the "j-word" in its response to the FCC move. "It is yet another example of a government agency acting to prevent billions in new investment and the creation of many thousands of new jobs at a time when the US economy desperately needs both," AT&T's top mouthpiece Larry Solomon said in a statement."

    Well I thought that I _was_ surprised, this paragraph notwithstanding, but it turns out I am simply astonished.

    .

    The story is told of Noah Webster. His wife caught him in a compromising position with the chambermaid. "Why Noah!" she cried, "I am surprised!" "No, my dear," said the great lexicographer, disentangling himself, "I am surprised. You are astonished."

  3. Someone Else Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    "Codswallop" - you Brits sure know how to turn a phrase

    That fact that the word is completely accurate is just icing on the cake.

  4. Eddy Ito
    Thumb Up

    And the peasants rejoiced!

    Well, at least this one did. I can see @&T is going to have to start handing out stock options at their politician purchase parties... eerrr I mean fundraisers, yeah that's it, fundraisers.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's almost like someone over there found some very old paper and went "Hey, didn't we break that huge compagny up into smaller ones a while back? Why is it back again?"

  6. kain preacher

    I remember thinking that this was not going to happen. But some folks said with usual pessimism that the govt was going to rubber stamp this one. Looks Like the FCC has all but said we are going to block it .

  7. skeptical i
    Devil

    "Not buying your bollocks, AT&T. [*thwap*] Can you hear me now?"

    Oops, wrong telco advert, sorry ... maybe not so sorry.

  8. Arctic fox

    How wonderfully ironic in the context.

    That the Dems should have that 3 - 1 majority because the Rep has left to become a lobbyist. Here's hoping that AT&T get totally stuffed - for the sake of all US mobile customers.

  9. Herby
    Joke

    Isn't AT&T...

    ...a modem test command?

    I don't know what T-Mobile is. Both do use GSM for their data transport, which doesn't do too well with close by AM radios.

  10. Spud2go
    Pint

    Create Jobs - what?

    Mergers of that nature never create jobs - only redundancies under the rationale of 'optimisation'. I only hope the FCC holds this one down.

  11. Zippy the Pinhead
    Stop

    "Surprising no one, AT&T also used the "j-word" in its response to the FCC move. "It is yet another example of a government agency acting to prevent billions in new investment and the creation of many thousands of new jobs at a time when the US economy desperately needs both," AT&T's top mouthpiece Larry Solomon said in a statement."

    Except internal AT&T emails have actually stated just the opposite.. That they could instead slow down 4G network build out while at the same time rid US consumers of the bargain basement National Cellular Carrier.

  12. Peter H. Coffin

    "It is yet another example of a government agency acting to prevent billions in new investment [...]"

    And by "new investment" they mean the $39(us)billion "invested" in buying t-mob's infrastructure. Not that they were going to build a whole lot more themselves on top of that in the near term.

  13. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    "Jobs" and other false claims

    Oh yes, the supposed AT&T jobs. They claimed it'd create "up to 96,000" jobs. But, first off, they were counting over 10 years, counting each job as a fresh job every year -- so the real claim was 9,600 10-year jobs. Secondly, they were using lots of bogus fudge factors, like assuming some new employees would then eat more McDonalds, so more people have to work at McDonalds, and so on, meaning how many *actual* jobs they even predicted is quite uncertain. Obviously, though, this is all fake, mergers result in a reduction in jobs.

    AT&T's second claim was they need all this extra spectrum. Also false -- they have far more 850+1900 than Verizon Wireless (who has a similar amount of spectrum), they have a little less 700 than Verizon but a lot more AWS (1700/2100), and they have huge swaths of other spectrum.

    The simple reality is, AT&T wants to buy T-Mobile to eliminate a GSM competitor that has better prices and especially better data plans (T-Mobile throttles when you hit your data limit, instead of charging cash overages.) (AT&T and T-Mobile are the full-price and budget national GSM carriers, and Verizon Wireless and Sprint are full-price and budget CDMA carriers here, and there might be local ones available -- where I live we also have US Cellular (CDMA semi-national carrier) and IWireless (GSM local carrier.))

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