NEW YORK (AP) ? AT&T Inc. blasted the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday for compiling what it called an unfair and biased report on what would happen if AT&T were allowed to buy T-Mobile USA.
AT&T agreed in March to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion, but the deal has encountered opposition, first from the Justice Department and then from the FCC. Analysts now give it only a slim chance of going through.
The FCC took the unusual step of releasing its analysis of the merger on Tuesday. It found "questions of fact" about AT&T's stated justifications for the merger and dismissed most of AT&T's arguments. It said competition in the industry would suffer if AT&T swallowed T-Mobile, and potentially lead to higher prices for consumers.
AT&T immediately attacked the release of the report, saying it was a draft that had never been voted on by the five-member commission. The "questions of fact" would have been addressed at an administrative hearing that now won't take place, since AT&T has withdrawn its merger application. The company is expected to resubmit the application.
On Thursday, AT&T released a more thorough, combative response to the report. It's an unusual one for a company that spends heavily on lobbying and cultivates close relationships with regulators.
"The document is so obviously one-sided that any fair-minded person reading it is left with the clear impression that it is an advocacy piece, and not a considered analysis," the Dallas-based company said.
In a rebuttal, the FCC said its staff "dispassionately" waded through a 200,000-page record to produce an "objective" report.
The FCC report said the merger would threaten fragile competition in the industry, yet AT&T pointed out that it also cites existing competition from Verizon Wireless as a strong motivator for AT&T to build out its new data network, even without the resources it would gain by buying T-Mobile USA.
The FCC report disputed AT&T's claims that the merger would create jobs rather than eliminate them, as is usual for mergers. AT&T says the expansion of wireless broadband will stimulate job creation, and points out that the FCC itself says its own $4.5 billion broadband fund would create half a million jobs over six years. That's counting not just phone-company jobs, but jobs created by the availability of broadband.
"This notion ? that government spending on broadband deployment creates jobs and economic growth, but private investment does not ? makes no sense," AT&T said Thursday.
The war of words is unlikely to affect the outcome of AT&T's quest to buy T-Mobile USA, since the chief hurdle is a suit filed in August by the Justice Department to block the deal.
Associated Presstrans siberian orchestra little big town little big town bennett bennett daniel day lewis patti stanger
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.