For Immediate Release - April 21: Today AT&T filed to request government approval for its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile. AT&T submitted the $39 billion deal with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this afternoon.

"Justice Department and FCC approval of this merger would be a decision to make mobile broadband duopoly inevitable, harming consumers in the long run. The government cannot seriously consider approving such extreme consolidation in the wireless industry at a time when the FCC has only just begun to address the serious gaps in competition policy that already put smaller, rural and regional carriers at a severe disadvantage to AT&T and Verizon," said Michael Calabrese, Director of New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative (OTI) Wireless Future Project.

"In addition to higher prices and less choice for consumers, the merger is guaranteed to cost thousands of employees their jobs at a time when the nation's economy is struggling to create new jobs, let alone make up for the massive job losses that have happened over the past 10 years. Both consumers and American workers would benefit far more from a real focus by the Obama Administration and the FCC to create policies to promote more competition in the wireless market, including mobile device interoperability and spectrum caps, rather than approve a merger that would further hobble the very limited competition that exists today," added Benjamin Lennett, Senior Policy Analyst for the Open Technology Initiative (OTI).

Please contact Sabrina Siddiqui, Media Relations Manager, at 202.596.3365 or siddiqui@newamerica.net, about scheduling and availability for Michael Calabrese, Director of New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative (OTI) Wireless Future Project and his team.