Senate's antitrust head asks for rejection of AT&T, T-Mobile deal

AT&T's planned $39 billion merger with T-Mobile may have hit a major roadblock on Wednesday as the chair of a Senate subcommittee that handles antitrust affairs voiced his opposition. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) said that the planned merger would lead to higher prices and fewer choices for consumers.

T-Mobile is the one remaining carrier offering lower priced rate plans, Kohl noted. In a letter to both the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission, the Wisconsin Democrat asked for the merger to be blocked because it "would likely cause substantial harm to competition and consumers, would be contrary to antitrust law and not in the public interest."

In a separate move, three Democratic House members, Edward Markey, John Conyers and Anna Eshoo, all expressed concerns with the deal and what they saw as growing consolidation in the wireless market. Wednesday's moves seem to be the first organized effort by opponents on Capitol Hill to scuttle the deal.

A bipartisan letter signed by 76 lawmakers in support of the merger was sent to the DOJ and FCC back in June. In addition, major players in the tech industry including Microsoft and Facebook have already lobbied the two agencies to consider approval.

Sprint has been one of the merger's biggest opponents as well, with its CEO Dan Hesse reportedly investing a lot of his personal time into ensuring the merger doesn't go through.

AT&T responded about 20 minutes after this story posted: "We respect Senator Kohl. However, we feel his view is inconsistent with antitrust law, is shared by few others, and ignores the many positive benefits and numerous supporters of the transaction. This is a decision that will be made by the Department of Justice and the FCC under applicable law and after a full and fair examination of the facts. We continue to believe those reviews will result in approval of this transaction."