There is some objection to the AT&T/Bellsouth merger, with a bunch of companies telling the Federal Communications Commission it will reduce competition. Sprint Nextel is at the head of the pack, arguing that AT&T will “use its dominance in the provision of special access to disadvantage its wireline rivals as well as the commercial mobile radio service competitors of Cingular Wireless”. The issue is how much mobile operators have to pay to use dedicated lines to transmit calls from base stations to mobile switching centers.
The arguments to the FCC are summarised by this quote: “The FCC needs to say that enough is enough, and stop the incessant effort of AT&T to reestablish its nationwide wireline monopoly by using monopoly profits to gobble-up its competitors, rather than by competing for customer loyalty through innovation and service,” said Heather Gold, senior vice president of government relations at XO Communications.
Subscriber content
?
Subscriber content comes from Gigaom Research, bridging the gap between breaking news and long-tail research. Visit any of our reports to learn more and subscribe.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Comments have been disabled for this post