OTI Urges Stronger Antitrust Enforcement, Citing Failed Telecom Mergers

On Thursday, OTI filed comments urging the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to strengthen antitrust enforcement. OTI argued that lax enforcement in the telecommunications sector has contributed to the unaffordable cost of internet service and exacerbated the digital divide. OTI also urged the agencies to eschew behavioral conditions as a merger remedy and be more skeptical of efficiency claims given the history of companies like AT&T overstating the benefits of a merger.

OTI has participated as a public interest advocate in many mergers over the past decade, including AT&T/T-Mobile (2011), Comcast/NBCU (2010-11), Comcast/Time Warner Cable (2014-5), AT&T/DirecTV (2015), Charter/Time Warner Cable (2015-16), Sprint/T-Mobile (2018-2020), and Verizon/TracFone (2021). OTI also advocated for stronger vertical merger guidelines in 2020 and supported the FTC’s decision to scrap the old guidelines last year.

The following quote can be attributed to Joshua Stager, deputy director of broadband and competition policy at New America’s Open Technology Institute:

“For more than a decade, OTI has studied and advocated for open, competitive markets, particularly in the telecommunications sector. This work leads us to an inescapable conclusion: the U.S. is in dire need of stronger antitrust enforcement. Telecom mergers have consolidated the broadband market and worsened the digital divide. Tens of millions of Americans have, at most, one internet provider serving their home, leading to monopoly pricing and poor service.

“We applaud the FTC and DOJ for taking public feedback on the harmful impact of mergers, and urge the agencies to pay close attention to the lessons of telecom consolidation as they develop new guidelines.”