Allowing the two companies to coalesce into one giant telecom axis of evil could have amounted to a disaster, especially since the result would have been a formidable cable monopoly that would have crushed competition across the nation. Had the merger gone through, Comcast/TWC would have controlled 40 percent of the broadband market in the United States—and benefited from duopolies with Verizon and our old friend AT&T in many other markets. Confronting the AT&T merger, however, is slightly more complicated. Setting aside the nation’s dislike of the telecommunications provider, the connection between television services and the future of the Internet might not seem obvious.

Allowing the two companies to collude would have been a disaster for consumers. The alternative may be even worse