Justice Department approves Sprint and T-Mobile merger

[Shawn Knight]

Bottom line: In order to receive the DOJ’s blessing, the two companies must agree to help a new competitor enter the market to fill the void left by the merger of the nation’s third and fourth largest providers. That new carrier will be satellite television provider Dish Network.

The Department of Justice on Friday approved the proposed merger between Sprint and T-Mobile more than a year after it was first announced, albeit with a number of stipulations.

Per the settlement, the two companies will divest Sprint’s prepaid business, including Sprint prepaid, Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile, to Dish. The satellite provider will also get certain spectrum assets and gain access to at least 20,000 cell sites and hundreds of retail locations. Furthermore, T-Mobile must also provide Dish with access to its network for a period of seven years in order to give the new carrier time to build out its own 5G network.

Dish will pay $1.4 billion for Sprint's prepaid interests and $3.6 billion for the spectrum assets.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere said their goal was to ensure the DOJ’s concerns were addressed while enabling them to deliver on every aspect of the synergies they promised to unlock, and they did it. “It may have taken longer than expected by some, but today's results are a win-win for everyone involved,” he added.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced his support for the merger back in May.

The $26 billion mega merger between Sprint and T-Mobile was announced in April 2018 as a way for the two to put up a better fight against industry leaders Verizon and AT&T. The combined entity will have around 100 million subscribers and promises to offer lower prices and unmatched value while creating thousands of new jobs.

Legere / Claure photo via Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

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https://www.techspot.com/news/81163-justice-department-approves-sprint-t-mobile-merger.html

 

[trparky]

Good, I do see this as a win for consumers. Though, it's more of a win for Sprint customers than for T-Mobile customers since Sprint's network is complete garbage. Two tin cans and a string would be a better network than Sprint's garbage network.

So what I see going forth is T-Mobile shutting down Sprint's pathetic network and moving everyone over to the far superior T-Mobile network and then shoring up T-Mobile's network with the spectrum that's gained when Sprint's joke of a network is shut off.

 

[Icechip]

T-Mobile pricing has been great.. so if they can do lower prices. That will be great.

 

[Scshadow]

I don't really see what the concerns are with these 2 companies merging. T-mobile has made the first big push against AT&T and Verizon's status as being the top 2 carriers. 3 Carriers locked in competition really seems like enough to me. If it were AT&T or Verizon, I wouldn't support a merger, but T-mobile and Sprint? Thats fine, maybe even great. Plus we have a trillion or so MVNO Carriers out there riding off of these established networks. We have mobile options. I actually find it weird that the price of devices are so out of control, but service prices are comparatively reasonable right now.

 

[toooooot]

T-Mobile pricing has been great.. so if they can do lower prices. That will be great.

Better coverage means more expensive plans, not cheaper.

 

[trparky]

Better coverage means more expensive plans, not cheaper.

Not necessarily. Better coverage leads to more customers which leads to more money coming in which can lead to lower prices.