AT&T Says Blocking T-Mobile Purchase Will Lead to Higher Prices

Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) - AT & T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson said that blocking the proposed $ 39 billion purchase of the company's T-Mobile USA Inc. by the regulatory authorities will lead to higher prices for consumers.

With T-Mobile, the ability of AT & T is limited, Stephenson said last night at an event in New York. Congress has an ill-formed regulatory policy when it comes to wireless carriers, he said.

"The regulators can not keep up with changes in the industry," Stephenson told Captains of Industry series interview with Bloomberg News Content CEO Norman Pearlstine at 92nd Street Y in New York.

The Federal Communications Commission said in a report last month that AT & T had failed to show the public the benefits of the agreement, that the market for T-Mobile would cause significant job losses and that AT & T could build probably high-speed wireless Internet connections without the merger. The FCC let Dallas-based AT & T to withdraw its application to buy T-Mobile, a deal that would combine the second and fourth-largest U.S. wireless carriers. The Justice Department sued in August to prevent the merger as anti-competitive, and a court date is set for February.

The withdrawal leaves open the possibility that AT & T may be contacted again by the Commission with a revised agreement, FCC officials have said. Before the report, analysts had said that to win approval, AT & T may have to give up half of the customers of T-Mobile to ease antitrust concerns and gain control of assets, including wireless the spectrum. - With the help of Todd Shields in Washington. Editors: Nick Turner, Stephen West To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Moritz in New York at smoritz6@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:

Peter Elstrom in pelstrom@bloomberg.net Principal secretary, planning and development, Vijoy Prakash, said that the 2005 economic census reported that the total, only 7% were financed by the bank, 80% of businesses had no power relationship, 11% of entrepreneurs operating without the facilities and 4% were seasonal. Only 63% of businesses reported and 82% of businesses were driven employer having five employees or less, he said.

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