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AT&T: First quarter 2012 for T-Mobile merger approval

AT&T is looking to get final approval for its proposed merger with wireless phone provider T-Mobile by sometime in the first quarter of 2012. Reuters reports that AT&T's General Counsel Wayne Watts has said that the government approval process for the merger have been moving along "exactly as we expected".  The merger, which is expected to be worth $39 billion, needs the approval of both the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission.

Last Monday was the final day that people could turn in their comments to the FCC on their opinions of the AT&T/T-Mobile merger which would combine the first and fourth biggest wireless companies in the US. The nation's third biggest wireless phone provider, Sprint, made one last push on Monday to convince the FCC to not approve this merger. As Techno Buffalo points out Sprint claims that AT&T can improve its wireless network by a whopping 600 percent without the need to purchase T-Mobile. Sprint claims that AT&T can convert its existing network to the faster 4G LTE protocol as well as install macro and small cell transmitters to improve the network's design, among other efforts.

As far as T-Mobile, it also sent out an email giving its own side of the AT&T merger proposal, saying that the merger's foes have offered no "credible arguments" in their comments to the FCC to support their position. It added that, "As part of their application, AT&T and T-Mobile provided a compelling showing of their need for more spectrum to continue to provide quality service to customers and roll out new technologies in the future." T-Mobile believes that the merger of its company and AT&T is "by far the best way to solve this problem and ensure improved service and enhanced innovation."

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