Communications Litigation Today was a service of Warren Communications News.

Big 3 Carriers: Unbundled Wi-Fi Calling Complaint Is Meritless

VoIP-Pal's antitrust complaint is full of "prolix, repetitive, and at points incoherent allegations" and is "a last-ditch effort by a failing company to avoid the inevitable," defendants AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon told a federal court in a motion to dismiss the case Friday. VoIP-Pal is suing the three carriers in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that they're using their market dominance to deliberately withhold unbundled voice-over-Wi-Fi calling and texting from consumers (see 2410300004). The carriers' motion to dismiss (docket 1:24-cv-03051) said that since VoIP-Pal has suffered multiple court defeats in patent-infringement lawsuits, it's using its complaint as a different way of monetizing its patents. VoIP-Pal's offer to settle if one of the Big Three would buy it for $8.75 billion "lays bare what this case is really about," the carriers said. They added that VoIP-Pal lacks antitrust standing and that its complaint fails to allege that any defendant engaged in racketeering activity or that racketeering activity caused VoIP-Pal injury.