AT&T’s purchases, along with Verizon Wireless’s success acquiring cable spectrum, will prevent small and rural carriers from having access to airwaves, Caressa Bennet, general counsel of the Rural Telecommunications Group, a Washington-based trade group for wireless carriers who each serve fewer than 100,000 subscribers, said in an e-mail.“Consumers will pay dearly for this type of consolidation and have nowhere else to turn,” Bennet said.
