The wave of proposed mergers in the telecommunications industry — SBC attempting to gobble up AT&T, and Verizon trying to swallow MCI — mark the ultimate demise of any hope for consumers getting more choices and lower prices for local, long distance, wireless, and the new Internet-based services exploding on the market.
Evidence submitted to regulators across the country proves the pending mega-mergers of telephone giants SBC/AT&T, and Verizon/MCI will have a devastating impact on the nation’s residential customers. Taken together, the merger protests submitted by consumer groups show beyond a shadow of a doubt that the mergers are anticompetitive and will impose substantial harm on consumers. The harm posed by these mergers goes well beyond local and long distance markets that are already highly concentrated. More importantly, the mergers will destroy the feeble competition in markets for the telecommunications facilities that are necessary to provide a wide range of telecommunications services, including access to the Internet.