Sprint subpoenaed by 9 states over AT&T's T-Mobile bid

BANGALORE (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel (S.N) has received subpoenas from nine states in connection with antitrust reviews of AT&T's (T.N) proposed $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile USA, according to a Sprint letter posted on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) website.

In its letter dated June 28 to FCC, Sprint said it had received subpoenas and civil investigation demands from attorneys general in the states of Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington, as well as from the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Sprint, the No.3 U.S. mobile service, is opposing AT&T's proposed $39 billion purchase of No.4 U.S. mobile service T-Mobile USA, a Deutsche Telekom AG (DTEGn.DE) unit, on the grounds it will give too much competitive power to one company.

Sprint said in its letter that the states have asked the company to provide all the materials it had submitted to FCC regarding AT&T's deal.

Meanwhile, an AT&T spokesman told Bloomberg that his company had also received subpoenas from the same nine states regarding its proposed T-Mobile transaction.

In June, AT&T said it is confident of winning regulatory approval for its T-Mobile deal in the first quarter of 2012. The company had then said it supplied the Justice Department with a requested second round of data, and had reviewed the comments of those who oppose the deal.

AT&T was not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)