AT&T Has History of not Keeping Its Word, T-Mobile Says
AT&T has a long history of broken promises, said Andy Levin, T-Mobile senior vice president-government affairs, Wednesday in a blog post. Levin reacted to a recent AT&T post that suggested all spectrum licenses sold by the FCC should come with…
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stringent buildout requirements. “The funny thing is that AT&T has a long history of promising to build out broadband to consumers -- then failing to deliver on those promises -- and not just in rural areas, but in urban areas as well,” Levin fired back. In 2006, AT&T promised it would make broadband available to every household in its market area as part of its transaction with BellSouth, Levin wrote. “Six years later, residents in rural Mississippi were still waiting for high speed Internet,” he said. “That’s a long time to wait for a webpage to load.” In 2011, AT&T said it would bring wireless 4G to 95 percent of the U.S. if only the FCC would approve its buy of T-Mobile, he added. “Turns out, that statement was not accurate either,” Levin said. “Within months after the FCC denied the acquisition, AT&T announced plans to expand its LTE network to cover 94.3 percent of American consumers -- without T-Mobile’s help.” AT&T is "un-impressed with the un-carrier’s latest un-intelligible efforts to un-inform the debate," a spokesman said. "The reserve is a set aside; and it will significantly restrict our bidding in 44 out of the top 50 markets, which will leave American consumers who want a successful auction dependent upon T-Mobile and Sprint finally showing up at an auction with something other than actual un-checkbooks.”