Letter to Attorney General Holder and Chairman Genachowski

Letter

Dear Attorney General Holder and Chairman Genachowski:

We are writing to express our view that AT&T's proposed takeover of T-Mobile raises serious questions regarding the future competitiveness of thew wireless industry. We urge the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice to conduct a careful, comprehensive and expeditious review of this transaction and its potential effects on the mobile wireless broadband market, innovation and consumers across the country.

We urge the Commission and the Department to analyze the potential effects of the proposed transaction on market structure and performance, consumer welfare, and American jobs. We also encourage you to scrutinize the transaction's supposed coverage and capacity benefits, with an eye towards determining whether the claimed benefits will actually materialize and could be achieved only as a result of this transaction.

We believe that AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile would be a troubling backward step in federal public policy - a retrenchment from nearly two decades of promoting competition and open markets to acceptance of a duopoly in the wireless marketplace. Such industry consolidation could reduce competition and increase consumer costs at a time our country can least afford it. Further, it could also discourage investment and restrict innovation in both the wireless and wireline infrastructure market as well as in the associated applications and device markets.

For these reasons, it is critically important that the Commission and the Department comprehensively assess the consequences of the proposed transaction. We appreciate the careful review that the Commission and the Department are undertaking and look forward to the results of your analysis.

Sincerely,

Edward J. Markey
John Conyers, Jr.
Anna G. Eshoo

Source