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The deadline for filing public comments with the FCC about the AT&T-BellSouth merger is today (June 5th). Please take a moment to send a letter via the Free Press web site! This 69 Billion dollar merger will make AT&T the largest telephone company in the world.


Background from: Laser's Letter

AT&T filed an application with the FCC to transfer control of all of BellSouth's licenses to itself on March 31st, 2006. The FCC launched a period of public comment on the proposal on April 19th. FCC Chair Kevin Martin pledged that the Commission would examine "any allegations of specific harm in individual markets" caused by the joining of the two telephone companies.

Some analysts estimate that the union will result in a company that services almost half of all telephone land lines in the U.S. Yet the majority of publicly filed documents so far come from AT&T and BellSouth, extolling the benefits of the merger.

Since AT&T and BellSouth filed to combine, both firms have been rocked by revelations that they sold the National Security Agency the records of billions of phone calls made by U.S. citizens within the United States. Even before then news reports revealed that AT&T had been cooperating with President Bush's controversial warrentless wiretapping program.