Nine states and Washington D.C. have banded together to file a joint lawsuit in an attempt to block the pending merger between T-Mobile and Sprint. The merger is valued at an astounding $26.5 billion, but still requires the approval of the FCC and the Justice Department before it can go through.
The main concern is that the merger would create a de facto monopoly in the carrier space because of the sheer amount of assets this merger would put under one company. It would essentially cut the number of major wireless carriers in the United States from four to three, which isn’t great news for consumers.
Of course, the two companies argue that their merger would actually help companies because it would enable them to create a 5G network more quickly. However, there are still a lot of questions out there about what the impact of a massive 5G network would be. Some experts claim that it could come with health risks.
New York’s Attorney General Letitia James, released a statement about their decision to sue. “The T-Mobile and Sprint merger would not only cause irreparable harm to mobile subscribers nationwide by cutting access to affordable, reliable wireless service for millions of Americans, but would particularly affect lower-income and minority communities here in New York and in urban areas across the country,” said James. “This is exactly the sort of consumer-harming, job-killing megamerger our antitrust laws were designed to prevent.”
This suit is another example of states working to curtail the influence of the telecommunications industry. Those who follow the telecomm space will likely remember back to 2018 when 21 states sued the FCC in an effort to block the agencies choice to repeal the net neutrality laws.
Naturally, neither T-Mobile or Sprint have given any comments on this story.
Sources:
https://www.wired.com/story/state-attorneys-general-sue-block-t-mobilesprint-merger/?utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=twitter&utm_brand=wired&utm_campaign=wired&mbid=social_twitter&utm_medium=social
