An AT&T/T-Mobile hearing in the Senate Communications Subcommittee is likely...

merger of that size and that complexity probably needs to be heard.” Earlier that day, Sprint Nextel and other merger opponents said they would accept nothing less than a full denial of the deal. “There’s absolutely no set of conditions that’s going to recreate the T-Mobile brand,” said Sprint Government Affairs Director Trey Hanbury. T-Mobile will more than survive if the deal is blocked, because it would get a $6 billion breakup free from AT&T, Hanbury said. Consumers Union sees no condition that could remedy the harms that would result from the transaction, said the group’s policy counsel Parul Desai. Conditions can be difficult to enforce and expire after some time, she added. Conditions would only keep industry competitors on “life support” until AT&T decides to “pull the plug,” agreed Rural Cellular Association vice president Tim Donovan. National Hispanic Media Coalition Vice President Jessica Gonzalez said she understands but does not agree with other civil rights groups who support the merger. AT&T and T-Mobile are strong on promoting diversity in their workforces, and many minority groups are close allies with unions who support the deal, Gonzalez said. But in the “big picture,” the merger will eliminate many jobs for minorities due to redundancies, she said. Responding to claims by unions that Sprint doesn’t support unions and has outsourced employees, Hanbury said, “Sprint’s not the one on trial.” Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has said workers may unionize if they want, Hanbury said. And the company only outsourced one wireline call center, 17 years ago, he said. AT&T fired off a blog post the same morning to defend its deal. “You don’t need to look back 40 years to find evidence of AT&T’s commitment to jobs, diversity and community involvement,” the company said.