The following statement is attributed to Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of
Public Knowledge:
“It is entirely appropriate for FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to ask his colleagues
to assign the AT&T takeover of T-Mobile for an administrative
hearing. This is a course the Commission has taken before in similar
circumstances, and there is no reason it should not do so now.
“Chairman Genachowski is to be applauded for standing up to AT&T’s lobbying machine and moving forward to a hearing designation. We hope that the other Commissioners will follow the Chairman’s lead and move swiftly to vote the hearing designation order.
“Public Knowledge has said since the Department of Justice filed its suit, the law clearly requires the FCC to hold an evidentiary hearing. As we have
seen, the Commission has continually asked AT&T for information
about many of the company’s claims that the takeover is in the public
interest.
“Having a formal,
administrative hearing will allow AT&T to present publicly the
evidence it thinks it has on any number of issues, up to and
including, the claims that the takeover will result in the creation
of jobs — a result that would run contrary to every other takeover
AT&T has engineered. There is ample evidence in the record that
this deal would destroy jobs.”