Sprint and T-Mobile: There is a better 5G solution than reducing competition

[Commentary] The proposed merger between Sprint and T-Mobile once again focuses the nation’s attention on next generation 5G wireless service. Burdened with the fact that the current vibrant competition among four wireless companies has benefited consumers greatly (decreasing prices by 13 percent in the last year alone), the companies assert that their merger will accelerate the deployment of 5G. The “China is winning on 5G” argument of Sprint and T-Mobile is creative, and probably  the only rationale they could concoct after the government twice before rejected their proposal to reduce national wireless competition from four providers to three. Looking at what has changed since those knock-downs, fifth generation wireless is probably the only new argument to grab ahold of. However, the problem with the 5G rationale is that both companies have previously promised to be competitive in 5G.

Earlier in 2018, a study leaked from the National Security Council (NSC) argued that for national security reasons the government should build a cyber-secure national high-speed 5G wireless network – a “network of networks” that would be shared by all the wireless companies. Government network ownership, appropriately, went over like a lead balloon. Lost in the furor over that proposal, however, was the validity of conserving capital and building 5G faster to more Americans by using a single industry-owned shared network. Rather than making redundant expenditures to duplicate each other’s network, the companies could build their own “network of networks,” or at least a common backbone for basic 5G applications.

[Wheeler is a Brookings Visiting Fellow, Governance Studies,Center for Technology Innovation]