AT&T "Plan B" said to be in the works, which Deutsche Telekom denies

AT&T and Deutsche Telekom remain intent on their plan for AT&T to acquire DT asset T-Mobile USA, the pair have repeated a number of times, insisting there is no "Plan B."

“We have always said there is no Plan B,” Deutsche Telekom spokesman Philipp Kornstaedt told Bloomberg today.

The Wall Street Journal, however, is reporting that according to "people familiar with the matter," the pair are planning a joint venture that could address AT&T's need for more spectrum "while avoiding the competitive concerns voiced by the Justice Department."

In a cake-and-eat-it-too scenario, the Journal reports analysts have suggested, AT&T and DT "could jointly use the T-Mobile spectrum that AT&T coverts while Deutsche Telekom holds onto its T-Mobile customers." Whether that would let AT&T off the hook for the approximately $4 billion break-up fee included in the original deal, is unclear.

It has also been reported that AT&T has been in talks with Leap Wireless (CP: AT&T and Leap Wireless secretly planning side deal, says report), which could take some of the T-Mobile spectrum off its hands, again saving AT&T from being accused of holding too much of the pot.

According to today's Journal report, Deutsche Telekom would help Leap to finance its purchase of the T-Mobile spectrum from AT&T.

In March, AT&T announced its intentions to purchase T-Mobile for $39 billion, and in August the Justice Department filed a suit to stop the deal. On Thanksgiving, AT&T withdrew the transfer applications it had filed with the FCC and issued a press statement saying that the move was a strategic one, and that while it planned to pursue the deal it was for now focusing on the DOJ case, which is scheduled to go to trial in February.

Yesterday, despite the application's withdrawal, the FCC released a 109-page report on its findings regarding the AT&T deal, thoroughly outlining arguments — namely, that the deal would hurt competition, consumers and the U.S. job market — that the court can expect to hear come February (CP: FCC response bashes AT&T, gives T-Mobile unexpected pat on the back).

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, in a statement following the report's release, said the seven months spent reviewing the deal would have been better spent "furthering the goals of competition, consumer protection and the public interest," and that he hoped that no more of the FCC's resources would be expended on the "paradigm-shifting and complex transaction."

Which, as Copps must suspect, isn't very likely.