FCC Says AT&T's T-Mobile Acquisition Not in Public Interest

The big thing here is the motivation for the merger. In this case, the only apparent reason is to eliminate competition. On this scale, with so few national competitors, and with huge barriers to entry for any potential new competitor, that's a problem. That's exactly the kind of thing the FCC and the DoJ are supposed to police.

The Verizon / Alltel merger was completely different. Alltel was never remotely close to being a major national player.