Jim Cicconi, AT&T’s senior EVP of external and legislative affairs, took to the company’s Public Policy blog to comment on T-Mobile USA’s plan to close a number of call centres, stating that when it was attempting to acquire with its smaller rival, “we also predicted that if the merger failed, T-Mobile would be forced into major layoffs.”

Last week, T-Mobile, the fourth biggest operator in the US, said that it would cut 1,900 jobs and close seven customer service centres, in order to trim its costs. Philipp Humm, its president and CEO, said that “these are not easy steps to take, but they are necessary to realise efficiency in order to invest for growth.”

The AT&T executive argued: “At that time, the current FCC not only rejected our pledges and predictions, they also questioned our credibility. The FCC argued that the merger would cost jobs, not preserve them, and that rejecting it would save jobs. In short, the FCC said they were right, we were wrong, and did so in an aggressive and adamant way. Rarely are a regulatory agency’s predictive judgments proven so wrong so fast.”

In a forthright statement,  Cicconi continued: “But for the government’s decision, centers now being closed would be staying open, workers now facing layoffs would have job guarantees, and communities facing turmoil would have security. Only a few months later, the truth of who was right is sadly obvious.”

AT&T and Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile USA’s parent, dropped plans to merge late last year, stating that “both companies are in agreement that the broad opposition by the US Department of Justice and the US telecommunications regulator (FCC) is making it increasingly unlikely that the transition will close.”

T-Mobile has subsequently announced plans to launch LTE services next year, aided by spectrum and cash it received following the break-up of the proposed merger.