dr. layton 's conclusions? >> well, i think the premise, the supposition that you are asking us to accept is one plus one is three or four, and that -- >> so you don't accept the initial premise of increased capacity? >> well, that is it, that the two combined will find synergies and capabilities that overwhelm even what they could do separately, if you combined them, that new capability will come from the combination that wasn't there before. but i think there are -- what i think you want to look at is what the alternatives would be, not just looking at the two companies as they are now, but what the two companies could be if the merger was denied and they go forward with their plans to each build their own networks and they seek investment to enable them to do that and they enrich their capacities. so i think what we want to do is have as many in the mix as we can. >> i get that. i get that. of course, it is necessarily the government's job to decide which company's merger would undertake which strategy, but

dr. layton, whose one of the advocates many of them here who are pushing to make sure that john ledger aregoing to come through with their promises. people are calling this hearing appropriately the game of phones susan li, not the game of thrones but the game of phones so you're monitoring every word of this a whole host of people testifying including consumer advocates who are pushing for affordable communication tools. what have you heard so far? >> yeah so both sides of the argument are being made. we do have as you mentioned there and they're trying to advocate for 5 g. it comes down to 5 g, and whether or not you want to lose that race to other countries like china. i should point out ultimately the anti-trust enforcers at the doj and also at the fcc will control whether or not this deal goes through so this is about winning public perception in front of the senate subcommittee and so far listening to these executives they continue to sell the same story we heard them saying we're going to invest 20 to $25 billion this means thousands of jobs being created because we'll go outside of

dr. roslyn layton is a visiting scholar at the american enterprise institute, where she focuses on evidence-based policy for information, communications, and digital technology industries. she is also a visiting researcher at holberg university center for communication, media, and information technologies and a vice president at a company in denmark. she surf 2016-17 federal communications presidential transition team. she has a phd in economics, an mba from the rotterdam school of management, and a ba in international service from american university. george slover is a senior policy counsel in consumers union washington office, where he develops and grenades regulatory comments related to advocacy across a wide range of issues, including safety, telecommunications, energy, and finance. he oversees antitrust and competition policy issues. mr. slover has three decades of federal government policy experience with service in all three branches of government. mr. slover holds a jd from the university of texas law school and a master of public affairs from the lbj school. before we begin, i would lik