Today The Department of Justice approved the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint thanks to a deal to sell some assets to Dish including Boost Mobile for $5 billion. The T-Mobile and Sprint merger will be a $26 billion deal to bring the two companies together.
On T-Mobile’s website pushing for the merger they say: “It is absolutely imperative that the U.S. extends the global innovation, technology and economic leadership it seized during the 4G era. It is easy to forget now, but the 4G revolution unleashed innovation that led to the modern economy we interact with every day. Lyft, Uber, Snapchat, Tinder, Venmo, Square, Instagram…these are companies that simply do not exist without 4G. But 4G didn’t just create a herd of unicorns. Global leaders such as Facebook, Alphabet, Amazon, and Netflix adapted their businesses and their growth exploded!”
“With this merger and accompanying divestiture, we are expanding output significantly by ensuring that large amounts of currently unused or underused spectrum are made available to American consumers in the form of high quality 5G networks,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Today’s settlement will provide Dish with the assets and transitional services required to become a facilities-based mobile network operator that can provide a full range of mobile wireless services nationwide. I want to thank our state partners for joining us in this settlement.” Delrahim added, “In crafting this remedy, we are also mindful of the significant commitments T-Mobile, Sprint, and Dish have made to the Federal Communications Commission.”
“These developments are the fulfillment of more than two decades’ worth of work and more than $21 billion in spectrum investments intended to transform DISH into a connectivity company,” said DISH Co-Founder and Chairman Charlie Ergen. “Taken together, these opportunities will set the stage for our entry as the nation’s fourth facilities-based wireless competitor and accelerate our work to launch the country’s first standalone 5G broadband network.”
“We’ve been here before,” said Ergen. “When we entered pay-TV with the launch of our first satellite in 1995, we faced entrenched cable monopolies, and our direct competitor was owned by one of the largest industrial corporations in the world. As a new entrant, DISH encountered many skeptics who questioned our ability to succeed. But, customers loved the disruption we brought to the marketplace with innovations such as a 100-percent digital experience, local-into-local broadcast, the DVR and ad-skipping. Our substantial investments, constant innovation, aggressive pricing and commitment to the customer led us to become the third largest pay-TV provider. As we enter the wireless business, we will again serve customers by disrupting incumbents and their legacy networks, this time with the nation’s first standalone 5G broadband network.”
The deal is far from done as thirteen state attorneys and the District of Columbia have filed a lawsuit to block the merger on fears that it will lower competition resulting in higher prices.
This is breaking news we will post more as we learn more.
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