A Deal That Could Benefit Mobile Users

[Commentary] A federal government committee has cleared the proposed acquisition of Sprint by SoftBank, a Japanese telecommunications company, after securing concessions from both of them that should address national security concerns about the deal. Though they still have to clear a few more hurdles, the deal’s approval by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States is encouraging news. SoftBank is offering to buy a 70 percent stake in Sprint for $12.1 billion and to invest a further $8 billion in the company. The deal, if approved by the Federal Communications Commission and Sprint’s shareholders, should make the telecommunications industry more competitive by providing consumers better and cheaper choices for phone and broadband connections. It should also help Sprint, which has long struggled financially, compete more effectively with the much larger companies that dominate the industry, AT&T and Verizon.