AT&T will be able to importantly improve its mobile net capacitance and give better service to its customers because of its proposed learning of rival T - Mobile USA , company official said Thursday .

Critics of the good deal , admit rival Sprint Nextel , are faulty in asserting that AT&T is sitting on Mobile River spectrum , allege Bob Quinn , AT&T ’s senior frailty president for Union regulatory affairs . The proposed $ 39 billion deal , announce in March , is a “ very clean and quick way to grapple with some of the spectrum issues that are face this commonwealth and this fellowship in especial , ” he said during a press briefing .

The deal is necessary because AT&T is face a spectrum shortage as mobile broadband use continues to skyrocket , the troupe has indicate . While critics have hint AT&T is pile up spectrum , the company is using its 700MHz spectrum , acquire in 2008 auction sale , and its AWS ( advanced wireless table service ) spectrum to roll out 4 G LTE ( longsighted - condition organic evolution ) service , Quinn say .

Sprint has questioned why AT&T , with the largest spectrum belongings of any U.S. carrier , involve T - Mobile . “ AT&T has repeatedly assure investors that it has the spectrum and web capacity it need to suffer the growing demand for data point services , ” Sprint said ina May 31 filingat the U.S. Federal Communications Commission . “ If AT&T has capacity constraints , they are the result of its failure to elevate and invest in its web . AT&T has incarcerate importantly in web investment . ”

Dozens of chemical group have voice opposition to the merger between the secondly - big mobile carrier in the U.S. and the fourth - large . The merger would reduce challenger in the mobile market and belike drive up prices , said critics including Public Knowledge , the Rural Telecommunications Group and the NoChokePoints Coalition , a conglutination of telecommunication customers , consumer groups and small carriers concerned with mobile backhaul rate .

The merged company would be “ obstinate to the express policies of Congress and the Commission to rely on competition rather than regularisation to protect consumers and goad deployment of new service , ” Public Knowledge and the Future of Music Coalition wrote in a May 31 filing to the FCC .

The combined companionship would be the large mobile supplier in the U.S. and would be able to assert control over fluid French telephone , applications , equipment and protocol development , Public Knowledge and the Future of Music Coalition read in their filing .

But AT&T , in a reply filing to be sent to the FCC on Friday , will contend the unification will be good for mobile customer . By compound connection , AT&T will be able to increase its roving capacity by 60 pct in New York City in the short term , and by more than 80 percent in the prospicient term , Quinn sound out .

Los Angeles and San Diego would both see curt - term spectrum gains of more than 45 percent , Quinn said .

The merger would give AT&T more spectrum and mobile phone column reportage , giving customer better mobile data service , he said . AT&T has tried other ways to meliorate content , include distributed antenna system and Wi - Fi hotspots , Quinn said .

“ We are not dazed , ” he said . “ We ’ve been in the wireless business for a long time . We ’ve tried all of these as light - term methods … to limit and supply for more capacity . While they give you some short - term benefit , they ’re not longsighted - term benefits to address the variety of bandwidth demand that we ’re seeing . ”

AT&T , in its FCC filing , will also note funding for the unification from dozens of groups , including 15 state governor , 10 travail unification , nine venture capital firms and several tech firms , include Microsoft , Facebook , Oracle and Yahoo , Quinn said .

Many groups supporting the merger see the potency for AT&T to get mobile broadband to more corners of the nation , he said . AT&T has said it plans to address 97 percent of the U.S. population with 4 grand service if the amalgamation is sanction by the FCC and the U.S. Department of Justice . mightily now , the company plans to brood 80 percentage of the population with 4 G service .