Sprint today asked the Federal Communications Commission to give it access to AT&T's merger plans with T-Mobile, to gather all possible ammunition for its expensive lobbying effort against the deal.
"We cannot let this happen," Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said, regarding the merger. If the deal were passed, Hesse argues that consumers would be hurt by a lack of competition, with AT&T and Verizon in a virtual duopoly, controlling 80 percent of the market.
The FCC has yet to approve the deal.
AT&T's proposed $39 billion marriage to T-Mobile would push Sprint, the third-largest carrier in the U.S., to the back burner. It would be left with a projected 50 million customers against second-place Verizon's 94 million and AT&T/T-Mobile's whopping 129 million.
AT&T claims its merger will fulfill the Obama administration's goals of beefing up network quality in cities like San Francisco and New York, along with rolling out more wireless broadband services.
But Sprint protests, hoping it can get the FCC to impose stiffer penalties. Should the FCC force AT&T and T-Mobile to hand over subscribers and wireless spectrum to other carriers as an anti-monopolistic safeguard, Sprint will be there to gather them up.
Insiders predict the deal will go through, given AT&T's willingness to accept concessions, such as selling towers and spectrum. If Sprint can persuade the FCC to make AT&T sell its assets at bargain prices as part of these concessions, the underdog company may have a better chance at long-term survival.
The FCC is expected to take up to a year to decide on the merger. Meanwhile, Sprint will be spending several million dollars on lobbying efforts. It recently hired three new groups to help its battle with AT&T.
AT&T, meanwhile, has plenty of money to burn on lobbying efforts of its own. The company has already doled out $8.4 million this year, going with $15 million last year. Even computer giant Google only spent $1.5 million on lobbying in 2010.
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