Street Map Mobile

This is perhaps the biggest move in this case yet. The United States government (Department of Justice, to be exact) has reportedly filed to block AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile for $39 billion, citing anti-trust laws being violated as AT&T would be taking substantial competition off the market.

"AT&T’s elimination of T-Mobile as an independent, low- priced rival would remove a significant competitive force from the market," the U.S. said in its filing.

While many in government, including Governors and Senators, have already expressed their distaste with AT&T and Deutsche Telekom’s proposal, the US DoJ backing everyone else’s concerns is about as big as it gets. It’s a significant blow to AT&T and T-Mobile, though it doesn’t necessarily mean their hopes are completely dashed. Developing… [Bloomberg]