Promises Mean Little for Consumers in T-Mobile/Sprint Deal

[Commentary] The proposition here is simple: This T-Mobile/Sprint deal will shrink the market for nationwide mobile wireless service from four players to three, giving consumers fewer choices and increasing the likelihood that prices will be higher and service offerings will be less consumer-friendly. Decreased competition in a market that is already consolidated? This deal should be an easy one for the government to reject. Companies seeking to merge typically promise the sun, moon, and the stars to regulators in order to obtain approval, and T-Mobile and Sprint are no different. In a transparent attempt to appeal to the Trump administration, they promise, among other things, to increase service to rural communities, accelerate the move to extremely fast fifth-generation 5G wireless networks, and create jobs. But these benefits will occur regardless of whether these parties combine. This deal is straight from the antitrust textbook—a horizontal merger that will shrink the market from four to three companies, substantially decreasing competition and harming consumers. The companies’ promises are speculative and not specific to this merger. This deal should not be a hard call for either the FCC or the DoJ—it should be blocked.

[Gigi Sohn is a Mozilla fellow, a fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology and Policy, and former counselor to FCC chair Tom Wheeler]