IT Management Slideshow:
ATT, T-Mobile Merger: 10 Reasons It's Bad News for CIOs

The proposed $39 billion merger between AT&T and T-Mobile USA has been the most talked-about topic of 2011 in the wireless industry. Shortly after the merger plans were announced, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit Aug. 31 seeking to squash the deal, which would see AT&T merge with the U.S. wireless division of Germany's Deutsche Telecom. Wireless competitor Sprint jumped into the fray on Sept. 6, filing its own lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the deal. Reportedly lining up in favor of the deal is the Communications Workers of America (CWA), a union representing more than 700,000 wireless industry employees. The union claimed in an Aug. 31 statement that the merger could create as many as 96,000 quality jobs. Enterprise users will be affected no matter the outcome. But for now, based on what we know of the merger, CIOs with large numbers of wireless users in the U.S. had better hope that this deal isn’t approved. Here are 10 reasons why.