by Robert Herron
Sprint 4G Rollout Updates
Thursday, November 24, 2011 - 8:25 AM MST

I decided to break from my Thanksgiving merriment to bring you breaking news that AT&T has decided to withdraw it's Application to the FCC for it's merger with T-Mobile. However, even though technically the merger is off with this change, AT&T says they are not giving up completely.

They have announced that they are still proceeding with the lawsuit in February with the Dept. of Justice over the anti-competitive nature of the merger. AT&T says if it is successful, they will likely reapply to merge with the FCC.

The thing that stumps me is that the next stop was the DOJ Trial in February. The FCC hearings were going to be after that anyway. So there would have been no net difference if they had not canceled the FCC application. And waited until after the February trial to withdraw. What is AT&T up to?

If I were left to guess, in my opinion, it appears that maybe keeping this fight alive at least at this level, maybe will allow AT&T to live up to the terms of the merger contract and perhaps they won't have to pay the $6 Billion in cancelation penalties to T-mo. What else could they be up to? The FCC portion of this deal is the only part that matters.

You have a theory? Sound off below...