FCC, third parties defend staff report panning AT&T/T-Mobile merger

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday defended its report on the proposed AT&T and T-Mobile merger from accusations that it unfairly ignored arguments favoring the move.

Rival mobile service provider Sprint and public interest joined the commission in supporting the report that AT&T condemned as biased. AT&T suggested the outcome of the review was pre-determined in a blog post published Thursday morning. The FCC responded by arguing that an objective analysis showed the deal would harm the public interest.

{mosads}“The AT&T/T-Mobile merger would result in the single greatest increase in wireless industry consolidation ever proposed. The FCC’s expert staff dispassionately analyzed all of the facts, including the arguments AT&T rehashes today,” said an FCC spokesman via email, citing “extensive participation from more than fifty corporations and consumer groups that filed petitions to deny the merger application.”

“The objective analysis concluded, like that of the Department of Justice and multiple state attorneys general that the transaction would decrease competition, innovation and investment, and harm consumers. In addition, AT&T’s own filings, many of which they have kept confidential, show that the deal would lead to massive job losses.”

AT&T has withdrawn its application for the merger until the Justice Department’s lawsuit to block the deal can be resolved. A trial is scheduled for February, though AT&T is reported to be exploring alternatives such as selling assets to competitors to resolve some of the concerns.

Sprint, which also reportedly explored purchasing T-Mobile, also defended the FCC’s analysis and poked AT&T over the timing of its request to withdraw the merger application.

“Rather than accept the expert agency’s Analysis and Findings, AT&T has chosen to make baseless claims about the FCC’s process. Let’s not forget that it was AT&T who tried to game the process by requesting to withdraw its merger application in the pre-dawn hours of Thanksgiving,” said Sprint senior vice president for government affairs Vonya McCann. 

Other opponents of the merger were also quick to defend the FCC’s conclusions.

“AT&T has attacked the FCC staff in an uncharacteristically intemperate statement,” said Media Access Project policy director Andrew Jay Schwartzman. “As one who is often on the losing side of FCC staff actions, I have never thought that the hard working career civil servants on the FCC staff have been anything other than fairminded and well-intentioned.”

“For AT&T to say that it did not receive a fair hearing before the Federal Communications Commission is ludicrous,” said Public Knowledge legal director Harold Feld.

“The Commission staff went out of its way to give AT&T every opportunity to make its case before concluding that the company had not done so. And, as we have said, the Commission was fully within its rights and authority to release the staff report. It is time for AT&T to move on.”