US mobile prices sky high after T-Mobile's Sprint buy

According to new figures from Rewheel, T-Mobile's purchase of Sprint in 2020 helped to keep mobile prices in the US sky high. "Five years on, the Sprint / T-Mobile 4-to-3 mobile merger made the US one of the most expensive mobile markets in the world," the Finland-based research firm wrote in a new report. "While monthly prices were falling and continue to fall across mobile markets and while the same was true in the US mobile market prior to the merger, after the merger prices in the US either stopped falling altogether or fell at a much slower rate. The 4-to-3 mobile merger in the US led to higher prices and consumer harm." Rewheel's new findings underscore its predictions made prior to the close of T-Mobile's blockbuster $26 billion acquisition of Sprint, then the fourth-largest wireless network operator in the US. As T-Mobile sought regulatory approval of its Sprint purchase in 2018, Rewheel reported that mobile prices for consumers generally fall faster in markets with four players rather than three players.