FCC Fires Back at AT&T Over T-Mobile Job Cuts

The Federal Communications Commission rejected the idea, put forth by AT&T earlier on Friday, that job cuts at T-Mobile are a sign that regulators should have allowed its megadeal to proceed.

“In a short period of time, T-Mobile has re-emerged as a vibrant competitor in the mobile marketplace,” an FCC representative told AllThingsD in an email. “Competition benefits all wireless consumers. The bottom line is that AT&T’s proposal to acquire a major competitor was unprecedented in scope and the company’s own confidential documents showed that the merger would have resulted in significant job losses.”

On Thursday, T-Mobile said it was closing seven call centers, in a move that will lead to the loss of at least 1,900 jobs.

AT&T, which had promised not to cut call-center jobs, held out T-Mobile’s plans as proof that the country would have been better off had the deal been approved, a notion the FCC quickly took issue with.