Several U.S. senators query Wednesday whether AT&T ’s purport acquisition of rival mobile carrier T - Mobile USA would be good for customer , as the company have claimed , with critics saying the bargain would create a duopoly in the U.S. mobile telecom business organization .
leader of the two companies championed the $ 39 billion muckle as enabling AT&T to land high - speed 4 K service to more corners of the area while passing on price savings from the unification to customers . The purpose acquisition , announced in March , will give AT&T the radiocommunication spectrum it needs to meet volatile increment in wandering datum use , Randall Stephenson , AT&T chairman and CEO , tell the antimonopoly subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee .
AT&T has seen an 8,000 per centum increase in mobile data book in the past four geezerhood , he said . The acquisition will mean fewer drop call and faster roving broadband speed for customer , he append .
“ First and foremost , this transaction is about consumers , ” Stephenson said . “ It ’s about keeping up with consumer demand specifically . It ’s about having the capacity to beat back innovation and competitive Leontyne Price . ”
But some senator raised doubts about AT&T ’s centering on customers . The learning would reserve AT&T to raise prices and “ cut thousands of problem , ” enunciate Senator Al Franken , a Minnesota Democrat .
The merger of the nation ’s second - largest and fourth - enceinte mobile carriers would give AT&T a 43 percent share of the U.S. Mobile River securities industry , said Senator Herb Kohl , a Wisconsin Democrat and subcommittee chairman . AT&T and Verizon Wireless would partake in about 80 percent of the securities industry , he said .
“ This is a business deal to make your ship’s company more successful and more profitable , ” Kohl told Stephenson . “ We should discuss it in that context , not that this is in the internal pursuit . ”
Stephenson scrap allegations that the deal would cost jobs . In the short term , AT&T would eliminate some supererogatory support jobs , but the acquisition would allow AT&T to rove out its 4 G LTE ( Long - Term Evolution ) web to about 97 percent of the U.S. population , which will require extra workers , he suppose .
Without the merger , T - Mobile does n’t have the resources to roll out its own LTE web , add Philipp Humm , T - Mobile USA ’s chairperson and CEO . T - Mobile has been lose customers and lack the spectrum to meliorate its mobile datum services , he enjoin .
AT&T ’s claim that the merger will allow for it to roll out 4 G service to rural areas does n’t make sense , add Gigi Sohn , president of Public Knowledge , a consumer rights group . AT&T already has the largest spectrum holdings among U.S. mobile providers , and the party is manoeuvre three propagation of wireless technologies , result in ineffective consumption of its spectrum , she said .
“ There is no spectrum shortage in rural America , ” Sohn said . “ AT&T is planning to spend $ 39 billion on this merger , money that could or else be pass invest in its web and bestow better military service to more Americans . ”
Sohn called the flock a “ pivotal moment ” in U.S. antimonopoly law . She barrack the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Federal Communications Commission to kill the wad .
“ There are no conditions or divestitures that make this deal acceptable , ” she said . “ This merger is unfixable . ”
In addition , the merger would make it more difficult for Sprint Nextel , the third - largest mobile mailman in the U.S. , to compete against AT&T and Verizon , said Dan Hesse , Sprint ’s chief operating officer . If the fusion happen , Sprint would probably be a nominee for skill by the two larger carriers , reducing competition even further , he say .
But about three - quarters of U.S. resident physician have a pick of five or more fluid carriers , count regional attack aircraft carrier , Stephenson and Humm say . They called on the DOJ and FCC to look at competition at the regional and local level when examining the deal .
“ At the local level , these are intensely competitive securities industry , ” Stephenson say . “ These buying decisions are made at the local food market layer . ”
