AT&T CEO: Sprint, T-Mobile have 'tough hill to climb' to get merger passed by regulators

Several years after the U.S. Justice Department blocked AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson says Sprint and T-Mobile will have "a tough hill to climb" to get their $26 billion merger approved by regulators.

The proposed deal is said to potentially reshape the U.S. wireless landscape.

In Stephenson’s first public comments on the proposal between competitors, he refused to take a "yes or no" position on the deal, according to a CNBC report.

"It's a classic horizontal merger where they are taking a competitor out of the marketplace," Stephenson said, speaking at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. "Power to them if they get it done."

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