AT&T’s Acquisition of T-Mobile USA Would Nearly Reach the President’s National Broadband Goal

According to the former US Representative of Virginia's 9th congressional district, Rick Boucher, if AT&T completes its acquisition with T-Mobile USA, it will just about reach the goal that President Barak Obama set of making high-speed wireless services available to at least 98% of Americans in the next 5 years.

Boucher, who previously served the House for 28 years and now heads up the government strategies practice group of the international Sidley Austin law firm and serves as the honorary chairman of the Internet Innovation Alliance, noted that the merger would mark a "very important step [in] achieving universal broadband in the near future." He also added that by 2017 AT&T would offer broadband to 97% of the US population.

Earlier this year in the President's State of the Union address, Obama alluded to his proposal that over the next 10 years would essentially free-up 500MHz of wireless spectrum via incentive auctions which would encourage innovation, and construct a nationwide interoperable wireless network for public safety while slashing the national deficit by roughly $10 billion.

The Wireless Innovation and Infrastructure Initiative would provide broadband service to the majority of 26 million Americans that the FCC recently reported to Congress are still going without high-speed Internet service.

Dallas, Texas-based AT&T claims that the acquisition of the fourth-largest wireless provider, T-Mobile USA, would solve its need for additional spectrum. Moreover, AT&T cited its broadband plans as one of the chief public benefits of the $39 billion merger that would allow its fourth-gen LTE networkto reach 97% of United States citizens.

Before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, AT&T’s CEO, Randall Stephenson said the company's broadband plans signify almost "55 million more Americans than our pre-merger plans and millions more than any other provider has committed to service."

While there have been many parties opposed to the merger – including Sprint, the Department of Justice and several states – there are quite a few high profile, well-known names that are supporting it. Yahoo, Research in Motion, Qualcomm, Oracle, Microsoft, Facebook, Brocade and Avaya were named in a letter sent to Julius Genachowski, FCC Chairman. The letter addressed the fact that wireless networks are under pressure to keep up with the increasing demand for wireless broadband, and states that, "Given the network capacity challenges, policymakers must give meaningful consideration to AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile as a means of addressing their near term wireless broadband capacity needs," the letter states.