T-Mobile and Sprint Pitch Their Case Before Congress

Last week, T-Mobile and Sprint officially filed their public interest statement on their merger to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This week, the bosses of T-Mobile and Sprint made their case before the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights at a hearing titled, “Game of Phones: Examining the Competitive Impact of the T-Mobile – Sprint Transaction.” Though Congress will not be reviewing the deal (that job is left to the FCC and the Department of Justice), the hearing provided the companies a chance to make their case for the transaction that regulators will be reviewing over the next several months. Throughout the over two-hour hearing, some key disagreements surfaced over the state of wireless competition, the necessity of the deal for 5G buildout, and the certainty of consumer benefits.