The biggest decision that outgoing Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski made during his tenure was to block the merger between AT&T and T-Mobile, which earned him plaudits from rival carrier Sprint and scorn from AT&T executives. The Hill reports that Genachowski still has absolutely no regrets for thwarting AT&T’s T-Mobile takeover bid and said this week that a wireless industry dominated by AT&T and Verizon would be a “very bad thing for our innovation economy.”
Genachowski went on to point out that since the merger collapsed, T-Mobile has acquired more spectrum to give it a nationwide presence for LTE and has unveiled bold new pricing plans that ditch wireless contracts all together. Neither of these things would have been possible if the AT&T-T-Mobile merger had passed, Genachowski claimed.
“Two and a half years ago, the U.S. mobile marketplace was on the doorstep of duopoly,” he said. “Look at the market now.”
