While Comcast has highlighted many potential benefits of its proposed merger-deal with Time Warner Cable (TWC), as many as 50 public interest organizations on Tuesday wrote letters to the Justice Department as well as Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requesting them to block the deal.

Opponents of the proposed deal are arguing that the merger would provide Comcast with unprecedented market power, which would hurt competition and eventually lead to higher costs for consumers.

In a testimony submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Public Knowledge President Gene Kimmelman said, "If this merger takes place, Comcast would accumulate unprecedented market power. 

Kimmelman added that Comcast would dominate TV and Internet service in 19 of the top twenty U. S. markets, including Los Angeles and New York. In addition, the company would control around half of the market for the best broadband Internet speeds.

But, Comcast is arguing that the merger would not hut competition as the two companies do not compete in the same territories.

According to Comcast, the deal would facilitate faster build out of its planned national Wi-Fi network, which would trigger new competition between Comcast and its rivals like Verizon.

Comcast is also claiming that regulators would be harming competition in the field of multichannel video in case they do not approve the merger deal because the deal would allow it to compete with the likes of well-established multichannel video providers, such as Netflix, Google and Apple.

Senate Judiciary Committee will discuss the controversial $45.2 billion merger deal on Wednesday.