AT&T slapped with $2 million fine over Dobson acquisition blunders

The Martin-led FCC approved many a wireless merger in the past four years. One of those mergers, however, seems to have gone somewhat awry. The AT&T acquisition of Dobson was approved by federal regulators in 2007, contingent upon AT&T’s compliance with divestiture requirements set in place by the US Department of Justice. AT&T failed to keep up their end of the bargain, and is now being fined $2 million by the US DoJ.

AT&T was given the green light to acquire Dobson Communication’s rural wireless carrier, Cellular One, with the understanding that AT&T would divest three rural markets – two in Kentucky and one in Oklahoma – in the name of preserving market competition in those markets. The three wireless markets were to be handed over to smaller carriers in the area, all the while keeping sensitive customer information confidential.

The once-leading US wireless carrier complied with divestiture requirements, but conveniently ignored the stipulation that client records were to be kept under wraps. AT&T apparently opened up client records to AT&T employees, allowing them to pursue subscribers in the divested markets and lure them back to AT&T. Anti-trust regulators at theDoJ got wind of AT&T’s shenanigans and has slapped AT&T with a $2 million fine for violating the terms of the merger agreement.

The Verizon Wireless buy-out of Alltel essentially gave Verizon the subscriber-count to leap-frog over AT&T as the leading US wireless carrier, so it makes sense that AT&T would go to extremes trying to retain as many customers as possible. Reasonable? Sure. Ethical? Not so much.

[Via: CNNMoney]