NEW YORK – Yesterday, ColorOfChange.org submitted the comments of 49,886 of its members to the FCC, urging the commission to deny the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile. The comments argue that the merger will have hugely negative consequences, especially for African Americans. The comments were submitted before Monday’s midnight deadline for comments on the proposal.

“The AT&T and T-Mobile merger is likely to destroy jobs, raise the price of cellular service, and threaten net neutrality for wireless high-speed Internet,” said Rashad Robinson, executive director of ColorOfChange.org. “More than other groups, African Americans rely on wireless broadband to connect to the Internet. This deal would consolidate nearly eighty percent of the wireless market in the hands of AT&T and Verizon, two companies who are hostile to the principles which protect innovation and freedom of expression online.”

The group challenged what it called misleading and deceptive arguments from AT&T and other civil rights organizations supporting the merger, and noted that many of the non-profit groups in support of the merger have significant financial ties with AT&T.

AT&T and some civil rights organizations have claimed that the merger will help close the digital divide by allowing AT&T to speed up its deployment of high-speed wireless Internet service. ColorOfChange argued that allowing AT&T to take over T-Mobile will actually hurt access to high-speed internet for African-Americans. With less competition, prices for mobile Internet will go up — and it will become more difficult to close the digital divide since broadband access would remain unaffordable for too many people of color. Some groups have also claimed that the merger will be good for African-American and Latino workers. ColorOfChange noted that mergers almost always lead to layoffs as the merging companies seek to eliminate redundant jobs, and there is no reason to expect that this merger will be any different.

Late last week, ColorOfChange called on its national membership to submit comments to the FCC urging the commission to block the deal. ColorOfChange.org’s email to its members contains a detailed rebuttal of claims made in support of the merger by AT&T and various civil rights organizations, and can be found here: https://colorofchange.org/campaign/stop-att-mobile-merger/original_email/

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With more than 750,000 members, ColorOfChange.org is the nation’s largest African-American online political organization.