AT&T tried to acquire T-Mobile in 2011\u00a0but 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\u2019s fault that the government ultimately decided not to approve it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say it was a bad decision,\u201d Stephenson said. \u201cBut it was a decision that didn\u2019t go the way I wanted. We didn\u2019t execute well.\u201d Stephenson didn\u2019t 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\u00a0FCC would not approve the deal.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n