AT&T Files Response to Department of Justice Lawsuit

AT&T has filed a response to the Department of Justice lawsuit to prevent its acquisition of T-Mobile, reports Physorg.com.

AT&T claims the DOJ's analysis reflects a misunderstanding of the market. They say T-Mobile isn't a significant competitive threat to AT&T and has been losing market share in recent years, a trend which will discourage Deutsche Telekom from investing further in the carrier.

In contrast, AT&T says it spent more than $30 billion in network upgrades from 2008 through 2010, yet still can't keep up with customers' growing demand to transfer data over phones and other wireless devices, according to the court documents. But if it can snap up T-Mobile, AT&T believes the added capacity will put it in a better position to deliver better services. AT&T already has pledged to invest at least $8 billion and transfer 5,000 jobs currently in overseas call centers back to the U.S. if the T-Mobile purchase goes through.


The company also says that, "Without this merger, AT&T will continue to experience capacity constraints, millions of customers will be deprived of faster and higher quality service, and innovation and infrastructure will be stunted. If this transaction does not close due to Plaintiff's lawsuit, wireless consumers will, as the FCC Chairman predicts, increasingly face higher prices and lower quality."

Read More [via Engadget]