FCC chairman claims AT&T/T-Mobile merger is not in the public’s interest

The AT&T/T-Mobile merger is not looked upon favorably by many, especially regulatory bodies like the FCC, along with carriers such as Sprint who would effectively end up being the smallest amongst the four major carriers should this merger go through. The department of justice has filed an antitrust lawsuit to block the transaction, but the chairman of the FCC, Julius Genachowski has a backup plan in case the block falls through.

He told reporters today that he has requested for a formal administrative hearing once the lawsuit is over (assuming that the lawsuit falls through), and that both sides will be allowed to make their arguments for the merger. He is also claiming that through this merger, thousands of jobs will be lost and that it is not in the public’s interest to let it go through.

No doubt their competition Sprint will be pleased to hear that they are not alone in their campaign to stop the AT&T and T-Mobile merger from happening, and by all accounts it seems that there just aren’t that many people who are too happy about it either. It will be interesting to see how all of this unfolds.