

(Rick Wilking / Reuters)

The Federal Communications Commission has begun taking public comments as part of its consideration of the AT&T-DirecTV merger, a $49 billion affair that would combine the nation's biggest satellite TV provider with its second-biggest wireless carrier.

The FCC earlier announced it had recruited a number of economists to examine the AT&T-DirecTV transaction, who will be taking a close look at the proposal from an antitrust standpoint.

As with the FCC's call for comments on net neutrality, members of the public can weigh in on the merger by using the commission's Electronic Comment Filing System. Comments will be accepted until Nov. 5.