Rival Carriers Rip AT&T/BellSouth Merger

a group of competitive telecom carriers asked the FCC to deny or heavily restrict approval of the planned $67.1 billion all-stock "super merger." Citing what they called "irreparable harm to competition and the public interest that would result" from the deal, Cbeyond, Grande, NuVox, Supra Telecom, Talk America, XO and Xspedius made a coordinated appeal to the agency.... "If the commission does end up approving the merger, the group wants it to impose "stringent and enforceable conditions to offset the enormous anti-competitive effects of the proposed merger." As reported yesterday, industry groups and consumer organizations are mustering opposition to the proposed combination at the FCC, including the American Antitrust Institute, the Competitive Telecommunications Association, the Consumer Federation of America, the Free Press organization, the Media Access Project and the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates.