Opponents to T-Mobile/Sprint merger step up efforts to block deal

Members of the 4Competition Coalition met recently with Federal Communications Commissioners Brendan Carr, Michael O’Rielly, and Geoffrey Starks, as well as advisers to Chairman Ajit Pai and other FCC officials, to reiterate their opposition to the proposed merger. The 4Competition Coalition consists of Dish Network, AFL-CIO, Common Cause, Rural Wireless Association and more than a dozen other entities. Their meetings come as several Wall Street analysts have lowered the odds that the deal will go through. Opponents of the deal say that if allowed to proceed, the merger would lead to price increases for virtually all wireless customers, substantially raise wholesale rates and cause significant job losses, all while failing to deliver on promises to expand rural coverage. They also seized on Sprint executives’ comments about the status of its network and pointed to Chief Commercial Officer Brandon Dow’s testimony to the California Public Utilities Commission in Feb, with statements like: “Sprint will be here to compete whether we merge with T-Mobile or not,” and “[We] are a stable company. Sprint is not going bankrupt.”