In a long-expected settlement, the Department of Justice has agreed to approve the $26 billion merger of No. 3 and No. 4 U.S. telecom providers T-Mobile and Sprint. As a condition of the approval, …
, will be a larger rival to AT&T and Verizon, though regulators pushed for the divestiture of assets with an eye toward preserving competition. Dish had already been accumulating spectrum and stating plans to build a wireless network, though some analysts and policy experts have wondered if it will become a legitimate No. 4 contender anytime soon.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere called the outcome with the DOJ a “win-win for everyone involved.” The original merger plan announced last April, he said, promised $43 billion in synergies. “We are pleased that our previously announced target synergies, profitability and long-term cash generation have not changed,” he said in a statement. “Today marks an incredibly important step forward for the New T-Mobile.
Sprint Executive Chairman Marcelo Claure called it “an important day for our country and, most important, American consumers and businesses.” Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, released a statement in praise of the settlement. “The commitments made to the FCC by T-Mobile and Sprint to deploy a 5G network that would cover 99% of the American people, along with the measures outlined in the [DOJ] consent decree, will advance U.S. leadership in 5G and protect competition,” Pai said. The chairman added that he will circulate a draft order advocating for FCC approval of the deal.
On Wednesday’s AT&T’s conference call with Wall Street analysts to discuss the company’s second-quarter results, CEO Randall Stephenson was asked about the Sprint-T-Mobile deal as well as the entry of a new player led by Dish chairman Charlie Ergen. He said he wondered “what level of comfort [state attorneys general] take that the antitrust concerns and fix is Charlie Ergen coming into the wireless business that’s been decades in the making.
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