Public would lose out from AT&T, T-Mobile deal

[Commentary] It’s March again, a time when most sports fans root for underdogs. Of course, a few people lean towards favorites, including a small and odd fan club assembling for AT&T’s proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile. What’s especially puzzling are the strange reasons that some cheerleaders and some casual observers cite in favor of this mega-merger – one that would increase concentration vastly in a market that already is highly concentrated – when most people see through the illusory claimed benefits.

Wireless users and wireless competitors alike are upset by the proposed acquisition, which would combine the second and fourth largest U.S. carriers, rocketing AT&T back into the top slot and giving it more than 40 percent of U.S. subscribers. That combination inevitably would lead to fewer choices and higher prices for consumers and businesses that use mobile voice and data services. It would affect not only current T-Mobile customers, but customers of other carriers as well, who would find themselves with fewer alternative providers. It would harm AT&T’s competitors too, most of whom already incur higher device costs and operating expenses directly attributable to AT&T’s exclusionary conduct.

[Wood is associate director of Media Access Project]