In documents filed late last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), AT&T acknowledged the impact of various antitrust lawsuits upon its plan to acquire T-Mobile USA, as the company pushed back its projected completion date for the $39 billion merger to the end of June 2012. Originally, AT&T had anticipated receiving FCC and other regulatory approvals in time to consummate the transaction by the end of next year’s first quarter. The company also postponed the projected closing date of its planned $1.9 billion purchase of 700 MHz wireless licenses held by Qualcomm, Inc. from the end of this year to March 2012, citing the FCC’s decision earlier this year to combine review of the Qualcomm deal with the T-Mobile merger. On August 31, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed suit to block the AT&T/T-Mobile merger on grounds that the deal would remove a significant wireless market competitor (T-Mobile) that has the power to constrain prices industry-wide. Sprint Nextel and C-Spire Wireless followed with the filing of their own antitrust complaints in September. Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle decreed that Sprint and C-Spire could pursue their antitrust claims with respect to the potential impact of the merger on the wireless device market and roaming rates, as she dismissed other claims raised by the carriers. Meanwhile, in response to lawmakers’ questions during an oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder played down speculation that the DOJ is discussing with AT&T a potential settlement of its pending antitrust suit, affirming: “there’s a trial team that is in place, and they are ready and eager to go to court.” Holder’s comments stand in contrast to AT&T’s publicly-stated position that it is reaching for a settlement of the DOJ’s claims as it prepares for the antitrust trial, which is scheduled to commence on February 13. (Observers also indicate that AT&T is preparing a new package of proposed asset divestitures that is intended to alleviate concerns raised by the DOJ and by numerous parties in the FCC’s ongoing proceeding on the merger.) Proclaiming that the DOJ would not file an antitrust complaint it is not prepared to pursue, Holder told the Senate panel that his legal team is in the case “for the long haul.”