As speculated and discussed for some time now, AT&T (T) has finalized a deal to buy DirecTV (DTV) for nearly $49 billion.

The to-be-exact $48.5 billion merger means some 20 million U.S. customers latched on to AT&T — in a move that is raising serious concerns about competition and customer selection.

The company now rivals Comcast in its ability to offer phone, high-speed Internet and pay-TV subscriptions to customers.

The deal must still be approved by federal regulators.

Via the Washington Post:

The deal is the latest mega-merger to be announced this year in a dramatically shifting telecommunications industry. The titans of the industry have recently rushed to bulk up — in overall size and in diversity of service offerings — as their legacy phone and TV businesses have frayed and consumers have turned to the Internet for communication and entertainment.

The deals … have prompted new concern that consumers could be left with fewer options and even higher prices after years of creeping increases. In 2012, U.S. cable-TV bills increased 5.1 percent, to an average of $64 a month, triple the rate of inflation, according to a government report.

At the same time, the deal also gives consumers more streamlined services.

“This is very, very unique,” AT&T’s chairman and chief executive Randall Stephenson Stephenson said in a conference call on Sunday. The deal “fulfills a vision that we’ve had for a couple years . . . to take premium content and deliver it over multiple points for the consumer.”