BST-att: the argument

Mercury news breaks down the arguments:

• "If approved, this merger will lead to higher local, long-distance and cell phone prices for consumers across the country,'' said Gene Kimmelman, of Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports.
• "But AT&T says it's facing competition from all sides.
• The company competes with cable companies like Comcast over customers for television and broadband services.
• AT&T's Cingular Wireless competes with Verizon Wireless, Sprint-Nextel and T-Mobile.
• And new technologies that allow consumers to make phone calls over the Internet leave AT&T battling with upstarts like eBay's Skype software and services like Vonage."