Wireless Carriers

The Justice Department filed suit Wednesday to block AT&T's proposed $39-billion takeover of wireless rival T-Mobile USA, with its top antitrust lawyer declaring, "Any way you look at this transaction, it is anticompetitive. " Only the most ideologically hidebound supporters of the deal ever claimed it would boost competition, however. The question has always been whether the benefits it could deliver would outweigh the loss of an innovative, low-priced service provider. That's a far murkier issue.

The Justice Department is seeking to block AT&T Inc.'s $39-billion plan to buy T-Mobile USA Inc., claiming that combining the two wireless giants could stymie competition and innovation. The agency filed a civil antitrust lawsuit Wednesday morning in federal court in Washington that would prevent AT&T, which has the second most subscribers in the country, from acquiring fourth-largest T-Mobile. The deal, according to the Justice Department, would displace Verizon Wireless as the largest wireless carrier in the U.S., leading to higher prices, lower-quality services, a smaller pool of choices and fewer pioneering technologies for millions of Americans.

The Federal Communications Commission has restarted its 180-day clock for its review of AT&T's proposed $39-billion takeover of T-Mobile USA. The FCC had paused the clock on July 20 after asking the two companies for more information about how, in their view, the efficiencies of the combined carriers would outweigh the potential anticompetitive effects, according to a statement on the agency's website by Rick Kaplan, chief of the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications...

With a majority of its members now appointees of Gov. Jerry Brown, the California Public Utilities Commission is poised to end its customary hands-off approach to regulating wireless carriers by ordering an investigation into AT&T Inc.'s proposed $39-billion takeover of T-Mobile USA. Thursday's vote on whether to launch a full-fledged investigation is the first major test of the newly reconstituted panel's willingness to take a more active role...

Philipp Humm, the new chief executive of T-Mobile USA, wants to boost the wireless carrier's fortunes in the U.S. Humm, who came from sister company T-Mobile Germany in November, sat down with The Times recently to talk about his plans to make smart phones affordable, to get everyone using a tablet, and to explain how he'll face off against bigger rivals Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. He also had a few words about the iPhone (which T-Mobile...

Verizon Communications Inc. is set to buy Terremark Worldwide Inc., an information technology services company, for $1.4 billion, part of an effort by the wireless carrier to boost its cloud-computing abilities. Verizon offered $19 a share in cash ? a 35% premium over Terremark's closing stock price Thursday of $14.05 a share. Terremark is a Miami-based firm that operates server banks used for Web hosting, cloud computing and IT security services to "some of the world's largest companies and U.S. government agencies" such as BMW and H&R Block.

Security researchers Nick DePetrillo and Don Bailey have discovered a seven-digit numerical code that can unlock all kinds of secrets about you. It's your phone number. Using relatively simple techniques, this duo can use your cellphone number to figure out your name, where you live and work, where you travel and when you sleep. They could even listen to your voice messages and personal phone calls — if they wanted to. "It's really interesting to watch a phone number turn into a person's life," DePetrillo said.

Capping a day of dueling announcements from rival cellphone service providers, AT&T said Tuesday that it would allow users of Apple Inc.'s popular iPhone to make Internet telephone calls over its wireless network. Hours earlier, Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest mobile carrier, said it was teaming up with Internet search giant Google Inc. to release a family of cellular devices powered by Google's Android software, whose capacity to run a vast array of "apps" is widely thought to represent a threat to the iPhone.

New rules proposed by the nation's chief communications regulator to ensure unfettered access to the Internet would level the online playing field as more people surf the Web on mobile devices, but the plan has wireless carriers in an uproar. Monday's proposal by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski would ensure that consumers would be able to get whatever content they want on the Internet and to use any service they want. But the telecommunications and the cable companies that control both land-line and wireless access to the Internet argue that some customers who download large amounts of data, such as a continuous flow of movies, can jam their networks.