FCC Begins Review of AT&T-Mobile Deal, Reiterates Motives
AT&T’s planned acquisition of competitor T-Mobile for a whopping $39 billion stirred a lot of buzz lately, and as the story is beginning unfold, it’s also raising some eyebrows in Washington. And now that the government’s formal review of the deal started, AT&T has decided to reiterate its case for why the deal should be allowed to happen.
Here’s what AT&T said in a blog post:
“While some people were surprised by the announcement, the main reason for the deal was obvious to anyone who has been following the rapid growth of the wireless industry–we need more capacity to address the surging demand for mobile broadband…”
The mobile carrier also insists that the industry won’t be effected by the huge share it and Verizon would hold. Still, the deal has to be signed off by both the FCC and Department of Justice in order to go through, while the former does have its share of concerns about the matter. The agency held a press conference, stressing that the main objective of its review is to look at the short-term and long-term impact on competition (and consequently rates).
There have been opinions regarding the AT&T T-Mobile deal, both positive and negative. Chairman of Evercore Partners Roger Altman told CNBC that the approval of the $39 billion acquisition will change the competitiveness in the mobile space, and according to him, nor will it affect the degree to which prices continue to fall. Democratic Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Copps however dubbed the pending deal as a “paradigm-altering transaction.”
AT&T has announced its intentions to buy T-Mobile earlier this year, and analysts as well as FCC officials expressed growing concerns before the investigation kicked off. Nevertheless most of the concerns probably come from the consumers, and AT&T’s completion. Among them is Sprint, who has been busy lately working on its Google Voice and Direct Carrier Billing initiatives in tandem with Google. Verizon also belongs to the AT&T competitors list, and the no. 1 carrier recently announced it’s bringing 100Gbps networks to the U.S shortly after starting a similar project in Europe.
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