GOP senators voice support for AT&T/T-Mobile

{mosads}”Some of this evidence suggests that the merger would provide significant and immediate efficiencies enabling enhanced service quality, expanded network capacity, and increased data speeds.”

The letter also references AT&T’s pledge to deploy next-generation wireless broadband to 97 percent of the nation. Opponents argue the promised efficiencies are speculative at best, and the 4G pledge should not be sufficient cause to approve the merger.

The senators also jabbed their Democratic colleagues by carefully avoiding an outright endorsement of the merger, instead urging FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Attorney General Eric Holder to carefully examine the proposed benefits.

“We are mindful … that the Subcommittee’s review was necessarily limited and that your agencies — not Congress — are properly charged with the responsibility to investigate such mergers and take appropriate action,” the pair wrote.