Business Insider has Sprint’s takes on the DOJ suit.
“By filing suit to block AT&T’s proposed takeover of T-Mobile, the DOJ has put consumers’ interests first,” Sprint VP of Government Affairs Vonya B. McCann said in a press release. “Sprint applauds the DOJ for conducting a careful and thorough review and for reaching a just decision – one which will ensure that consumers continue to reap the benefits of a competitive U.S. wireless industry.”
Smoking gun:
Susan Crawford, our guest on today’s show, told us about some accidentally disclosed documentation that would blow holes in AT&T’s argument about expanding coverage and service. AT&T has been saying it needs T-Mobile’s spectrum to build out its LTE network. But a memo found in August says AT&T was planning to build out the network to 80% national coverage anyway. To build it out all the way would cost them 3.8 billion dollars and the only reason they weren’t planning to spend that was that they wanted to spend the money buying T-Mobile. In fact, they’re spending ten times that for T-Mobile. Meaning: they didn’t need the spectrum, they didn’t need T-Mobile, they just wanted to buy and eliminate a competitor.
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