During a hearing held by the Senate Judiciary Committee today, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said that his company needed to purchase T-Mobile to have enough "spectrum depth" to launch its upcoming 4G LTE network in many rural areas in the United States. This claim sparked skepticism and even mockery from both senators and fellow panelists at the hearing, who noted that AT&T already had more spectrum holdings than any U.S. carrier. In fact, as the carrier with the "strongest spectrum position" that "boasts the most cell sites and the most spectrum of any wireless network" in the country.

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Three panelists at the hearing -- Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, Cellular South CEO Hu Meena and Public Knowledge President Gig Sohn -- all said AT&T had more than enough spectrum to meet its needs and said the company had significant quantities of spectrum that weren't being used.

"AT&T doesn't use the spectrum it has," said Hesse, who has been critical of the proposed merger since it was announced earlier this year. "AT&T already has the spectrum it needs to reach rural America."

"AT&T has enough spectrum," said Sohn, who noted that many of AT&T's capacity problems were the result of it running legacy technology over spectrum that could be freed up for 3G or 4G services. "This merger would give more spectrum to AT&T and would reward AT&T for their failure to invest in their network."