T-Mobile and Sprint may sell wireless tech to Dish to soothe the DoJ's antitrust concerns

[Polycount]

Recap: Sprint and T-Mobile's planned merger was set to move forward in May when FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he would recommend approving the deal (which is worth about $26.5 billion). Unfortunately for the two mobile carriers, things started looking a bit shaky when reports claimed the US Department of Justice (DOJ) had concerns with the merger.

Specifically, officials allegedly worried that the deal would "hurt overall competition" in the mobile market.

To alleviate those worries and prevent the mobile market from essentially becoming a three-company industry (in terms of primary providers), Bloomberg now claims that T-Mobile and Sprint may sell roughly $6 billion in wireless tech to Dish. The company could use this deal to enter the industry and become its fourth major provider.

Should that deal work out (Bloomberg notes that it "isn't finalized" and may still "fall through"), it may just be enough to soothe the DOJ's concerns with the bigger T-Mobile/Sprint merger. Only time will tell whether or not these behind-closed-doors talks will pan out, but we'll keep you updated on the situation as more information comes to light.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/80570-t-mobile-sprint-may-sell-wireless-tech-dish.html

 

[Uncle Al]

Doubtful it will really help Dish, it will just prolong the inevitable ......

 

[yRaz]

So merger that would benefit consumers was blocked by the DOJ? Those lobbyists and their lobbying.

Then why merge? This merger was a bad idea from the start...

Care to elaborate why it was a bad idea merge?

 

[wiyosaya]

As a former Dish TV customer with an interest in technology, I know Dish bought mobile spectrum in the past and has been sitting on mobile spectrum for years; literally, they have done absolutely nothing with it. Given this past history of having mobile spectrum and doing absolutely nothing with it, I think selling any further spectrum to Dish by anyone is a total BS move.

This will alleviate another possible monopoly?? BS. I think T-mobile and Sprint know very well that it is highly likely Dish will do nothing with the spectrum, so there is no threat from Dish to their business. As I see it, the end result is the same for consumers with or without this supposed DOJ supported move to sell part of their spectrum.