AT&T tried to acquire T-Mobile in 2011 but the deal was ultimately denied by the FCC and the DoJ. AT&T USA CEO Randall Stepenson recently sat down with the Dean of the University of Colorado law school where he discussed the deal and hinted that, perhaps, it was AT&T’s fault that the government ultimately decided not to approve it.

“I wouldn’t say it was a bad decision,” Stephenson said. “But it was a decision that didn’t go the way I wanted. We didn’t execute well.” Stephenson didn’t dive much deeper than that, but AT&T decided to pull its bid to acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom after it was made pretty clear that the FCC would not approve the deal.

Sprint and several other U.S. carriers were in staunch opposition of the acquisition and feared it would give AT&T too much control over the market, cut jobs and more. AT&T always maintained that it would create jobs and would be good for the U.S wireless market.