AT&T Withdraws FCC T-Mobile Application, Will Focus on DOJ
Nov 24, 2011, 9:27 AM by Eric M. Zeman
AT&T and Deutsche Telekom today announced that they are formally withdrawing their request to the Federal Communications Commission to transfer T-Mobile USA's operating licenses to AT&T. Instead, AT&T and Deutsche Telekom will focus on winning the anti-trust case facing them from the Department of Justice. "AT&T and Deutsche Telekom are continuing to pursue the sale of Deutsche Telekom's U.S. wireless assets to AT&T and are taking this step to facilitate the consideration of all options at the FCC and to focus their continuing efforts on obtaining antitrust clearance for the transaction from the Department of Justice, either through the litigation pending before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, or alternate means," said the companies in a press statement. AT&T and Deutsche Telekom will resubmit the filings with the FCC when the time is right. Additionally, AT&T warned that it is taking a $4 billion charge in the fourth quarter of this year, should the deal eventually be denied by the government. AT&T has promise a significant break-up fee if the deal falls through, and will owe T-Mobile USA approximately $6 billion in cash and other assets.
Comments
Destroyed.
(continues)
DING DONG the witch is dead!
If DT still wants to sell out, I think Google would be ideal. There's already an established relationship (T-Mobile has been the Android testing ground) and T-Mobile would get an instant boost from the name recognition.
All in all, T-Mobile will do just fine if they just improve handset selection and work on some better roaming contracts.
...All in all, T-Mobile will do just fine if they [...] work on some better roaming contracts.
Supposedly, full free roaming on AT&T's network is park of the merger break-up package. So they should be set in that regard.