AT&T Asks Court to Dismiss T-Mobile Challenges

AT&T has asked the U.S. Disctrict Court for the District of Columbia to dismiss Sprint and Cell South's challenges of its proposed merger with T-Mobile.

In a court filing Friday, AT&T said they both lacked standing to challenge a horizontal merger between wireless providers on antitrust grounds and that their allegations that the transaction will harm them are not plausible.

"Sprint knows that competition will be enhanced, not harmed, by the combination of AT&T and T-Mobile and that a post-merger AT&T -- freed of spectrum shortages that impair its ability to offer customers better services at lower prices -- will be a more formidable competitor," said AT&T.

"As with Sprint, Cellular South's claim that the transaction will impair Cellular South's access to new wireless devices fails to establish its standing because the complaint lacks the factual allegations necessary to make out a plausible claim that the transaction will lead to foreclosure of the market for devices," the company said.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.