Sprint may reconsider T-Mobile merger following strong opposition from regulators

[Himanshu Arora]

Sprint's potential merger with smaller rival T-Mobile has hit a major roadblock after strong opposition from antitrust regulators. According to The Wall Street Journal, Sprint entourage, which included CEO Dan Hesse and Softbank Chairman Masayoshi Son, met with the FCC and the Department Of Justice last week, but was “surprised by the level of opposition” the deal is expected to face.

The reason behind strong opposition from the FCC and the Department of Justice is the belief that the deal would leave the wireless world with less competition, which is not good for consumers. Currently there are four major wireless players in the US market including AT&T and Verizon.

Though there is some weight in the argument that Sprint and T-Mobile combined would give stiff competition to AT&T and Verizon, it will be an uphill task for Sprint to convince the federal regulators, especially in the wake of T-Mobile's emergence as a fierce competitor in the past year.

The Department of Justice already warned Sprint that the deal would face "intense scrutiny" and numerous regulatory difficulties. But if Sprint and T-Mobile still decide to move ahead with the deal, it could result in a repeat of the actions taken in 2011, when T-Mobile's merger with AT&T was blocked.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/55632-sprint-may-reconsider-t-mobile-merger-following-strong-opposition-from-regulators.html

 

[Fbarnett]

Yea Sprint would Wreck TMOBILE like they did to themselves

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

T-Sprint?! I can understand T-mo and ATT merging, their phones work on each other's network, but T-Mobile and sprint? As a T-mobile customer I get fast connections in very few places... Sprint has slow connections everywhere. But could phones work on both?

I don't really agree with the anti-trust thing either... I get it that they'd make for a huge company and there would be less competition, but Sprint kinda sucks. The anti-trust thing is to prevent a huge player from controlling the market and I can't see Sprint doing much of that.

Not to mention Pink and Yellow? what does that even make? Light gross orange?

 

[psycros]

T-Sprint?! I can understand T-mo and ATT merging, their phones work on each other's network, but T-Mobile and sprint? As a T-mobile customer I get fast connections in very few places... Sprint has slow connections everywhere. But could phones work on both?

I don't really agree with the anti-trust thing either... I get it that they'd make for a huge company and there would be less competition, but Sprint kinda sucks. The anti-trust thing is to prevent a huge player from controlling the market and I can't see Sprint doing much of that.

Not to mention Pink and Yellow? what does that even make? Light gross orange?

Sprint is implementing universal radio support throughout its network as we speak. Their intention is obviously to make it easy for people to bring almost any 3G phone to their network (and eventually upgrade you to one of their own 4G devices). AT&T and Verizion know this and are working behind the scenes to block rollouts of this tech any way they can. A T-Mo merger makes a lot more sense when you consider these facts. So long as the resulting company doesn't have more customers or spectrum than the two market leaders I can see no legit reason to block it.

 

[lmike6453]

Anyway you cut it, consumer plans will still be overpriced as they are now for GOOD data latency and speed, which still isn't 100% coverage on AT&T and Verizon