AT&T issues “told you so” statement to FCC after T-Mobile layoffs
After news that T-Mobile will be closing seven call centers and terminating the jobs of over 3,000 employees, AT&T couldn’t turn down the chance to get in one last dig at the FCC for shutting down a proposed merger between the two telecom companies. Jim Cicconi, AT&T’s senior executive vice president of external and legislative affairs (quite the title), took to the carrier’s public policy blog to do his best job of spreading egg on the face of federal regulators.
“Normally, we’d not comment on something like this. But I feel this is an exception for one big reason — only a few months ago AT&T promised to preserve these very same call centers and jobs if our merger was approved. We also predicted that if the merger failed, T-Mobile would be forced into major layoffs.”
That’s not even a roundabout way of saying “told you so.” That’s a pretty direct way of saying it. I especially like the first line, which only adds to the thick air of bitterness surrounding Cicconi’s comments. He continues to further pick at the FCC’s decision, which was based in part on evidence that approval of the merger would come at the cost of thousands of jobs lost. Instead, Cicconi chides, “rarely are regulatory agency’s predictive judgements proven so wrong so fast.”
The outright frankness of the full statement makes it a worthwhile read. It’s as if Cicconi takes personal offense to the FCC’s disapproval of the merger. Rarely do we see this sort of public reaction from a high-ranking executive. Head over to the link below for the full read.
[via AT&T]