Feb. 13 Trial Date Set for Justice Suit Against AT&T–T-Mobile

By John Eggerton
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

A D.C. Federal District Judge has set a Feb.13 trial date for the Justice Department's antitrust suit to block the proposed AT&T–T-Mobile merger on antitrust grounds, AT&T confirms.

That came Wednesday in a scheduling conference between Justice and AT&T.

The judge basically split the difference between AT&T's preferred date, Jan. 16, and Justice's choice, March 19.

AT&T's choice would actually be for the suit not to come to trial but instead for it to work out a path to approval before that. Justice has said it is willing to talk about its competition concerns, and AT&T, which has always said divestitures and conditions were on the table, has said it is willing to listen.

John Eggerton
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.