Don't Let Sprint Buy T-Mobile

[Commentary] For the same reason the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile US didn’t go through in 2011, a Sprint/T-Mobile joinder shouldn't be permitted either: No matter how the deal is conditioned, it will cause a reduction in competition. We already have a highly concentrated mobile-phone marketplace.

It's a "duopoly with a fringe": Two behemoths, Verizon Communications and AT&T, take home three-quarters of mobile revenue in the US. Their spectrum holdings, existing physical networks, powerful brands and lobbying heft create significant barriers to entry in an industry in which scale and scope are everything.

Sprint, with about 16 percent market share, argues that combining with T-Mobile (13 percent) will create a viable third player. But if a Sprint/T-Mobile deal is approved, the combined entity will have less incentive to be disruptive and more incentive to raise prices than either of them have now as separate businesses.

That matters even if you're not one of their customers. T-Mobile's aggressive marketing plans have driven Verizon Wireless and AT&T to act differently, offering better and cheaper family plans to some of their customers.

[Crawford is a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law]