AT&T Has Two-Pronged Plan To Keep T-Mobile Merger Alive

At the start of the merger process, many people though that the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile would be an easy thing. Some of the competitors weren't happy at all at the prospect, specifically a yellow firm that bet big on WiMax. This week the Department of Justice filed a complaint over the deal citing anti-trust concerns and the FCC has some serious misgivings about the merger as well. AT&T isn't going to let its plans die that easily though.

AT&T has a plan to try to save its proposed merger. AT&T is gearing up to fight for the merger in court and the company is ready to make concessions to get the deal to go through. Undoubtedly one of the things pressing AT&T to fight so hard is the roughly $6 billion it will owe T-Mobile if the deal falls through.

Naturally, AT&T isn't offering up details on how exactly it plans to fight for the merger, but there have been some educated guesses made. The concessions are expected to be a pledge to keep the existing and lower cost subscription plans that T-Mobile has currently. AT&T may also have to sell off some assets and may have to shed as much as 25% of T-Mobile assets as well. The problem is the sale of national assets would likely lead to anti-trust issues for the two other major national carriers making a sale difficult.

[via Reuters]