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On Sunday telecom giant AT&T announced its proposal to buy the nation’s fourth largest cell phone company, T-Mobile, for an estimated $39 billion in cash and stock. If approved it would become the largest provider of mobile phone services. AT&T’s top brass said the merger would be a win-win-win for the companies, its consumers, and the U.S. government. In its announcement the merger was promised to improve customer service, increase innovation, and “help achieve the [Obama] administration’s and FCC’s broadband goals.” However few others foresee a rosy outcome. On Tuesday the CEO of Sprint, the nation’s third largest cell phone company said, “I do have concerns that [the merger] would stifle innovation.” If the deal goes through consumers will see their choice of providers shrink, with Verizon and AT&T controlling 80% of the market. But AT&T states the market will remain “intensely competitive” and it is “confident of regulatory approval” by the Department of Justice and the FCC. Tim Karr at Free Press writes there is cause for its confidence because AT&T has spent more than any other corporation to lobby members of Congress, and President Obama’s newly appointed Chief of Staff, William Daley, is a former telecom lobbyist. Addressing main-street economic concerns AT&T is touting its unionized workforce as proof that the mega deal will produce good jobs. But when it merged with Cingular in the mid 2000’s jobs were lost, not created. The New Jersey Star Ledger reports a buy-out of T-Mobile would jeopardize employees at all 63 T-Mobile retail stores in its state. The Seattle Times called the merger a “huge loss” for Seattle, where T-Mobile is headquartered, and predicted thousands of high-wage earners will be issued pink slips. Some of those most concerned about the merger are T-Mobile customers, who rank the carrier as one of the best carriers in customer service and overall satisfaction. AT&T is consistently ranked as one of the worst.

GUEST: Robert McChesney, professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, cofounder of the media reform organization Free Press, author of several books on media and politics, host of the weekly talk show, Media Matters, on WILL-AM radio

Find out more at www.freepress.net.