AT&T takes to the Hill (that is Capitol Hill) with its phalanx of lobbyists, costing $15.3 million in 2010, to push through its mega-merger with T-Mobile. The combined company will have an estimated 130 million subscribers in the U.S., approximately the population of Russia. According to industry watchers, the going will be tough even though the behemoth and biggest kid on the block, "can you hear me know" Verizon, will remain on the sidelines — a shrewd move to be sure. Verizon worries that any restrictions it attempts to foist on AT&T will inevitably apply to them too. So sit in the back of the room and maybe no one will notice this $63.4 billion per year behemoth. But by all accounts the merger is no done deal. Indeed, consumer groups may have some leverage.
To win those skeptical consumers, AT&T’s should agree to “voluntarily” forego arbitration provisions banning class actions in all of its consumer contracts. I know they just won a hard-fought battle in the Supreme Court to win the right to kill most consumer gripes on arrival by forcing an arbitration proceeding that has no chance of ultimate success. In the scheme of things it’s a throwaway. They want the lines, they want the customers, they want the infrastructure. Agreeing to arbitrate claims, even on a class-wide basis, is a drop in the ocean. And it provides competitive advantage over the rest of the industry.
Sometimes when you can’t win on the law, you have to resort to other means. Here those means are the cold hard realities of politics.