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Sprint Sues To Block AT&T, T-Mobile Merger

Washington
– Sprint Nextel joined the lawsuit to block AT&T’s proposed acquisition of
T-Mobile.

Sprint
Nextel filed its own antitrust lawsuit following last week’s filing of a

lawsuit
by the Department of Justice

, which seeks to block the merger on the
grounds that it would be anticompetitive.

In
its suit, Sprint Nextel sued AT&T, T-Mobile and T-Mobile parent Deutsche
Telekom on the grounds that the merger
would violate the
Clayton Antitrust Act. Litigation VP Susan Haller called the proposed
acquisition “illegal” under section 7 of the law.

The
acquisition, Sprint Nextel said, would cause higher prices, reduce innovation,
and leave the top two carriers — AT&T and Verizon — after the merger with
control
of more than three-quarters of the market and 90 percent of the profits. In addition,
Sprint said the merger would harm it and other
independent wireless carriers.

 “If the transaction were to be allowed, a
combined AT&T and T-Mobile would have the ability to use its control over
backhaul, roaming and spectrum, and its increased market position to exclude
competitors, raise their costs, restrict their access to handsets, damage their
businesses and ultimately to lessen competition,” Sprint Nextel said.

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