AT&T asked for the FCC's permission to remove its application last week so it could focus on an upcoming legal battle with another government agency -- the Justice Department. The FCC dragged its heels, but announced Tuesday that it would indeed permit AT&T to withdraw its application.
All of which inside baseball means just one thing to the average consumer: AT&T is further away than ever from its goal of snapping up T-Mobile's customers, cellphone towers and other assets, if it can save the deal at all.
Earlier Tuesday, reports emerged that AT&T was attempting a last-minute legal maneuver to save the deal: selling a sizable portion of T-Mobile’s customer accounts and some of its wireless spectrum to Leap Wireless. Leap would then, well, leapfrog its competitors -- becoming the fourth largest carrier in the U.S.