Earthlink Speaks Out Against Bell-South AT&T Merger

Count Earthlink as one of the companies who's not too happy about a proposed merger between AT&T and Bell-South.

Chris Putala, Executive Vice President, Public Policy, EarthLink, said, "Last year's mega-merger of AT&T and SBC was conditioned on pro-competition measures insisted upon by the Justice Department and the FCC. Today, the Justice Department abandoned consumers and small businesses by refusing to require even those modest protections on the proposed AT&T- BellSouth merger -- the largest telecommunications merger in American history"

The stakes are huge, and a struggling Earthlink does not want to see a world where AT&T has this kind of dominance. Basically, Earthlink asked the FCC to re-affirm pro-consumer measures it required for both the AT&T-SBC and Verizon-MCI mergers. Earthlink has been losing money for several quarters straight.