Antitrust Law
The merger between AT&T and T-Mobile undermines the antitrust regulations and laws as it will give the merger unfair competition. According to Moritz (2011), both AT&T and T-Mobile are major mobile and wireless providers in the U.S economy with a combined 133.7 million subscribers and their merger would lead to the monopoly of the services. Largely, the merger deal is likely to eliminate any aggressive competitive pricing driving up the costs of subscription for the customers. The regulatory agencies have the responsibility to protect the consumers from potential exploitation by the corporations.
The approval of the merger will undermine the intentions of the antitrust laws that are focused on protecting fair competition in the markets. For example, T-Mobile has cheaper wireless plans ranging from $15 to $50 than the high cost plans offered by AT&T. The merger would threaten the potential cheaper wireless plans for the customers. AT&T’s merger proposal faced significant opposition due to the magnitude of the combination of the two companies. Sherman Antitrust Act states any form of combination or contractual arrangements that leads to the destruction of competition and limits competitive pricing should be restricted (Seaquist, 2014: 2024 – Essay Writing Service. Custom Essay Services Cheap). It is possible that the merger would improve services and potentially expand rural investment in faster networks and wireless services. The merger would also lead to some losses of job for the workers of T-Mobile.
The regulators were right in demanding certain issues from AT&T before the proposal can be approved such as accepting to maintain the plan prices of T-Mobile and agreeing to retain the call-center jobs. In the long-run, the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile would monopolize the mobile and network services industry pushing prices higher for the customers (Moritz, 2011). The regulators must not allow the merger to progress further as it violates the fundamental provisions of the antitrust laws and regulations.
References
Moritz, S. (2011, December 19th). AT&T pulls $39 billion –Mobile bid. DeseretNews.com. Retrieved from https://www.deseretnews.com/article/700208468/ATT-pulls-39-billion-T-Mobile-bid.html.
Seaquist, G. (2014: 2024 – Essay Writing Service. Custom Essay Services Cheap). Business law for managers [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/
