(Image Source: International Business Times)

BY GARY COTTON

Already facing a lawsuit from The Department of Justice, AT&T has another legal obstacle in the way of its merger with T Mobile--its competition. (FOX)
 

“Sprint Nextel has filed a lawsuit to blockade AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in the District of Columbia as a related case to a lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice, to block the deal.” 

Sprint is worried about its ability to compete. The third-largest wireless provider says the merger will push the company out of the picture and leave customers with just two major wireless providers--AT&T and Verizon. A Sprint spokesperson told The Huffington Post...  

“"With today's legal action, we are continuing that advocacy on behalf of consumers and competition, and expect to contribute our expertise and resources in proving that the proposed transaction is illegal."

Sprint’s been speaking out against the deal since March. A blogger for the New York Times says a scorned Sprint could cause a lot of trouble for AT&T.

“Sprint was one of the first and biggest opponents of the T-Mobile deal, having failed to buy the wireless carrier itself earlier this year...[The lawsuit] is the first of potentially a string of lawsuits aimed at stopping the blockbuster telecommunications merger.”

AT&T has promised better service and better prices if the deal goes through. But an analyst on CNBC says the primary reason AT&T will battle these lawsuits--if the deals fall through, T Mobile could get billions of dollars from AT&T.

“It’s 3 billion dollar plus and that says they’re not going to walk away. You look at other deals like Comcast buying NBC Universal, there was no break up fee in that deal where they said the anti-trust risk is so high, we’ll walk free of charge if there are issues. That’s not so for AT&T, 3 billion plus is a pretty penny, that’ll be hard fought.”