News coming out of Washington, D.C. is that the U.S. government filed a lawsuit today to block the AT&T move to buy the T-Mobile USA arm of Deutsche Telekom (News - Alert). Following closely on the heels of the August 29 move by the FCC to restart the “shot clock” on the deal, the timing is a bit of a shock.

The grounds for the suit are sure to only fuel what has already been a heated debate about the merits of the deal that has seen numerous twists and turns, including in the review of the merger by the California PUC.

TMCnet.com will be providing all the details as the story unfolds.

follow us on Twitter

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.

Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert)…

Peter Bernstein is a technology industry veteran, having worked in multiple capacities with several of the industry's biggest brands, including Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent, Telcordia, HP, Siemens (News - Alert), Nortel, France Telecom, and others, and having served on the Advisory Boards of 15 technology startups. To read more of Peter's work, please visit his columnist page.