AT&T asked by FCC in investigation progress

That letter contained details about AT&T's plans to expand its HSPA+ and LTE rollout and included information that wasn't supposed to be viewable by the general public. According to the document, filed with the FCC on August 8, AT&T estimated that it would have needed to invest $3.8 billion to "expand LTE coverage from 80 to 97 percent of the U.S. population. AT&T senior management concluded that it could not justify expanding its LTE footprint beyond the Plan of Record, despite the potential marketing and competitive benefits of doing so," the letter reads. Soon after the unredacted letter was posted on the FCC Web site, it was taken down at AT&T's request.

One of the key reasons AT&T has cited for its proposed merger with T-Mobile USA for $39 billion is its ability to expand its LTE coverage to about 95 percent of the U.S. population. In an interview with the Journal, a company representative said that it will provide additional details on the basis of its decision to acquire T-Mobile USA and that the company simply doesn't believe it could "deliver LTE to 55 million more Americans without our merger with T-Mobile."
Those in support of the merger have argued that the broadband benefits are too good for the FCC to pass up. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has been especially outspoken about the merger. The FCC plans to make its ruling early next year. The U.S. Department of Justice must also approve the merger.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski

The request by regulators to AT&T highlights the central issue in the proposed $39 billion acquisition: whether the combined company would benefit consumers enough to overcome concerns that the deal could limit wireless competition.
Expanding high-speed Internet service to all Americans is a top priority of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski.
Read the unredacted letter AT&T sent to the FCC.
In March, the nation's second-largest wireless carrier after Verizon Wireless, announced a deal to acquire fourth-largest T-Mobile.
The deal has triggered reviews by the FCC and the Justice Department's antitrust division.
In the Aug. 8 letter, AT&T defended the T-Mobile deal as providing economies of scale that would make it more affordable for the company to deliver high-speed mobile broadband service to sparsely populated areas of the U.S.
The request follows the unintentional public release earlier this month of an AT&T filing to the FCC that shed light on the company’s deliberations about the cost of deploying high- speed Long-Term Evolution, or LTE, coverage to 97 percent of the U.S. population.
AT&T’s purchase of Bellevue, Washington-based T-Mobile would combine the second- and fourth-largest carriers to create a new market leader ahead of No. 1 Verizon Wireless.
President Barack Obama in his Jan. 25 State of the Union address set a goal of extending high-speed wireless, or broadband, to 98 percent of all Americans within the next five years.
The company had unintentionally filed the documents with information intended to remain private. The FCC later took down the document from its Web site. The company said it didn’t have a business justification for the expansion.
AT&T played down the significance of the leaked documents and the request Wednesday for more information.
In a letter, Renata Hesse, senior counsel for mergers at the FCC asked AT&T to provide estimates of costs for network expansion after the merger.
(Reuters) - AT&T Inc (T.N) said on Wednesday that the Federal Communications Commission has requested more information about its acquisition of T-Mobile in relation to its commitment to expand high-speed wireless services to 97 percent of all Americans.
"Requests from the FCC staff for additional information are to be expected given the detailed review they are undertaking," AT&T spokesman Michael Balmoris said.