US STUDY DISCUSSES DROPPED COMSAT-CONTEL MERGER A congressional study today said the proposed, but now apparently abandoned, merger of the Communications Satellite Corp <CQ> and Contel Corp <CTC> would technically be legal but could violate the spirt of the law setting up COMSAT. Two weeks ago before the study was completed, Contel announced it would seek to terminate the proposed merger. The study by the non partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) said "the proposed merger appears to comply, technically, with the mandates or letter of statutes, if may nevertheless violate the spirit of the law." Comsat, created by a 1962 act of Congress, and Contel, a corporation of local telephone and communications firms, filed with the Federal Communications Commission last November 3 an application for merger. Several firms had protested the proposed merger. In an analysis of the law, the research service issued several critical comments about the structure of the new firm and said apparent domination by Contel of a restructured COMSAT would have broken the spirit of the law setting up COMSAT.COMSAT is the U.S. arm of Intelstat, the international satellite communications firm. Reuter...^M