The National Hispanic Media Coalition, NHMC, has filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice to stop the AT&T takeover, which has been scheduled to October.
In addition, NHMC is launching a short educational video explaining why AT&T’s takeover of T-Mobile is harmful to Latinos.
Through the video, NHMC argues that the supposed public interest benefits of this acquisition are heavily outweighed by the harms that all Americans, and particularly American Latinos, would face.
“NHMC has showed that this consolidation would eliminate T-Mobile, an important competitor, driving up prices, diminishing choices, and leading to layoffs,” comments Alex Nogales, President and CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition. “This acquisition is dangerous to consumers, it will harm Latinos more than help them,” adds Nogales.
The video shows data supporting that Latinos make up the majority of T-Mobile’s clients because prices are cheaper; cell phones are Latinos’ number one means to access the internet; and that further, the transaction would establish a duopoly by Verizon and AT&T over the cell phone business. Less competition is never good for consumers.
The merger will cause prices to rise to AT&T’s level and 20 thousand people are estimated to lose their jobs, many of them Latinos who work in the retail stores, or as bilingual customer service reps.
