Senate to review Comcast-AT&T proposal

A senate antitrust subcommittee on Wednesday said it would convene a hearing to study the proposed merger between the cable operations of telecommunications giant AT&T and cable operator Comcast. The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition, and Business and Consumer Rights tentatively set the hearing for April 10, a subcommittee representative said. The subcommittee plans to examine the antitrust concerns arising from combining the reach and assets of the two companies. The merger, proposed in December and valued at $72 billion at the time, would create a cable powerhouse, with more than 21 million subscribers and access to about 38 million households. That reach would help the new company take on the local telephone companies with renewed vigor in offering both telephone and high-speed Internet services over cable wires.