Klobuchar, Other Senate Democrats Urge FCC, DOJ to 'Closely Review' T-Mobile/Sprint
Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee ranking member Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and seven other Senate Democrats are urging the FCC and DOJ to “closely review” T-Mobile’s proposed buy of Sprint. Several Democrats criticized T-Mobile/Sprint after the carriers announced the agreement, with several…
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asking for hearings about the deal’s effect on the U.S. wireless sector (see 1804290001, 1804300057, 1805010072 and 1805020050). The FCC and DOJ must ensure T-Mobile/Sprint “does not threaten to harm consumers or competition in the wireless market,” the Senate Democrats said in a letter to DOJ Antitrust Division head Makan Delrahim and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai we obtained. The agencies should consider “the impact of reducing the number of national wireless carriers from four to three,” how “the proposed merger would affect lower-cost options for wireless service,” whether “specific regions, particularly rural areas, would be disproportionately affected” by the deal and “the proposed transaction’s likely effect on innovation of wireless networks and other technologies,” the letter said: The agencies also “carefully consider T-Mobile and Sprint’s direct competition against each other as the two lower-cost alternatives to AT&T and Verizon.” Lower-cost options “are especially important for Americans who rely on mobile broadband as their primary or only internet connection,” the letter said. Despite the carriers’ argument that T-Mobile/Sprint will help them deploy 5G, T-Mobile “has shown that it is already capable of rapidly creating and expanding a nationwide network independently when it deployed nationwide LTE faster than Verizon and AT&T. The transaction would also eliminate Sprint as an independent force for innovation.” The FCC, DOJ, Sprint and T-Mobile didn’t comment.