Economist Casts Doubt on T-Mobile/Sprint Agreement With DOJ
The agreement DOJ extracted from T-Mobile/Sprint to sell off key assets to Dish Network so it can build a fourth national wireless network (see 1907260071) likely won’t work as planned, said John Kwoka, American Antitrust Institute senior fellow. The new…
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T-Mobile has big advantages over Dish, Kwoka wrote Wednesday: “The merged firm has advantages in terms of information, control of assets, and pretextual excuses for what may appear to be non-compliance. It also has strong incentives not to aid its direct rival and make it into a more effective constraint on its own market position.” The settlement “fails the test of plausibly and predictably preserving competition in the U.S. wireless market,” he said: “It is anything but certain that Dish can successfully make itself into the fourth carrier that otherwise will disappear. Even if it does, it will be years before that happens.” Justice didn’t comment.