The CEO of US telco Sprint Nextel criticised AT&T’s US$39bn acquisition of T-Mobile USA in a Senate hearing yesterday, claiming that the “US will go backwards” if the deal is approved. Dan Hesse was speaking before a Senate committee looking into the…
The CEO of US telco Sprint Nextel criticised AT&T’s US$39bn acquisition of T-Mobile USA in a Senate hearing yesterday, claiming that the “US will go backwards” if the deal is approved.
Dan Hesse was speaking before a Senate committee looking into the deal.
According to an official statement released by Sprint, Hesse said that the wireless industry thrived on competition and that it had helped to produce “US global leadership in wireless communications”.
He also warned that if the AT&T/T-Mobile is allowed, it would create a market dominated by a few large players, as was the case with the “Ma Bell” break-up in the 1980s, when the US government broke up the old AT&T into several smaller companies due to concerns that it was too large.
Hesse said: “If AT&T is permitted to devour one of the two remaining national wireless carriers, while the rest of the world achieves advances in technology and innovation for the 21st century, the US will go backwards – towards last century’s Ma Bell.”
The Washington Post reported yesterday that Hesse had gone even further in the hearing, claiming that the deal would put Sprint in a position to be acquired and that it would not be able to compete.
The CEO of AT&T, Randall Stephenson, reportedly repeated his previous stance that the US wireless market is one of the most competitive at the moment, and would remain so after the transaction.
The Senate members that oversaw the hearing will not be making a decision on the deal, as this responsibility falls to the FCC and the Department of Justice.
But reportedly some Democrat members expressed fears that the best technology would go to the biggest firms.
The title of the hearing also suggested the senators were bearing in mind the Ma Bell legacy. The title was “The AT&T/T-Mobile merger: Is Humpty Dumpty Being Put Back Together Again?”
