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U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told lawmakers today that the Justice Department's antitrust division is "ready and eager" to pursue its lawsuit and stop AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile USA.

Holder said the division is "committed to seeing this through," Reuters reported today. Holder was speaking at an oversight meeting with the Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel.

In August, the Justice Department sued to block the proposed $39 billion merger, putting the brakes on what many in the industry assumed to be a done deal. The Justice Department cited concern over competition … Read more

The merger between AT&T and T-Mobile USA would create more than 100,000 jobs in the United States, a major telecommunications union said today, again putting its weight behind the deal.

The Communications Workers of America said a new analysis has found that the deal, which would combine the second- and fourth-largest U.S. wireless carriers, would create an additional 96,000 jobs, alongside the 5,000 outsourced jobs AT&T has pledged to bring back.

The CWA also lashed out at opponents of the deal, noting that their concerns over lost jobs stemmed from "sloppy … Read more

AT&T recorded a minor victory after Sprint Nextel was ordered to hand over internal documents to its rival.

The two companies continue to be bitterly locked over AT&T's proposed acquisition of Mobile USA, which Sprint has fiercely fought against. U.S. Special Master Richard Levie ruled yesterday that Sprint would have to hand over additional critical documents to AT&T that it hadn't already given to the U.S. Justice Department, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported yesterday.

AT&T had originally sought even more documents, which give insight into Sprint's game plan and … Read more

The regulatory scrutiny is starting to get to AT&T and its bid to acquire T-Mobile USA.

AT&T disclosed in its quarterly regulatory filing that it now expects the deal to close in the first half of 2012, compared with its previous target of the first quarter. The Dow Jones Newswires was the first to report the change.

The regulatory scrutiny has also caused it to push back the target date for its acquisition of spectrum from Qualcomm. AT&T now expects that deal to close in the first quarter of 2012, rather than the end … Read more

A federal judge today allowed Sprint Nextel and C Spire to continue with its lawsuit to block the merger between AT&T and T-Mobile USA.

AT&T and T-Mobile had attempted to dismiss the lawsuit. But Judge Ellen Huvelle allowed both companies to persist with their lawsuits, which claim they would be squeezed by market pressures if the consolidation were to be allowed, according to Reuters. Part of the lawsuits, however, were dismissed. The lawsuits could further complicate the deal, which already faces opposition in the form of a lawsuit from the Justice Department.

"Both Sprint and … Read more

The AT&T Z331 is the carrier's most recent flip phone for those who just want the basics. In addition to making calls and supporting Bluetooth, this 3G world phone has a browser, supports mobile e-mail, and has a 3-megapixel camera. It also can accommodate up to 8GB in external memory through a microSD card.

At just 3 hours of rated talk time, the battery life seems pretty short, but the price is nice at just $9.99 after a $30 mail-in rebate ($39.99 MSRP), or $179.99 off-contract.

AT&T gets its first LTE smartphones this weekend, Google Reader is integrated with Google Plus, and we learn more about the death of Microsoft's Courier tablet project.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

We can't remember the last time it snowed on Halloween weekend, but the cold weather kept all but one of us from dressing up today. Tune in to see who conjured up the spirits of Halloween!… Read more

Editor's note: This story was updated at 12:33 PT with a correction. The error message preventing iPhone 4S buyers from keeping their unlimited data plans was limited to the company's mobile site. The story was also updated at 12:50 p.m. PT with a comment from AT&T and further clarification.

Are you one of the many iPhone-owning AT&T wireless users pre-ordering a new iPhone 4S today?

If so, you may want to hold off from ordering through AT&T's mobile Web site, for now anyway. Those looking to upgrade their existing iPhone 3G, 3GS, or 4 will notice that AT&T removes the option to grandfather in their existing Data Unlimited for iPhone plan when moving up to an iPhone 4S. Fortunately, everything seems to be fine when attempting the upgrade process in a non-mobile browser.

Even on the regular Web site, it seems the wording on the AT&T page is a bit confusing, according to GigaOM. Some users are getting tripped up over this statement they see while checking out: "Your new device requires a different Data Add-on Plan than you currently have. We selected a compatible Data Add-on Plan for you. If you want a different plan, you can change the Data Add-on Plan by selecting Change here or from within my AT&T after you receive and activate your new device."

An AT&T representative reached out to CNET regarding this story with this clarification: "We're working on making the online page more clear. We are not removing grandfathered unlimited data plans."… Read more