With its Sprint merger in the bag, T-Mobile is already backing away from its promises

T-Mobile and Sprint completed their merger on April 1. And now — no surprise to the deal’s opponents — the merged company is already reneging on some of conditions regulators imposed to approve the deal. Most recently T-Mobile has moved to overturn several conditions imposed by the California Public Utilities Commission, including at least one the company specifically promised Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra (D-CA) in settling Becerra’s lawsuit to block the merger. T-Mobile is asking for two extra years to roll out high-speed 5G service across California. It’s also trying to nullify a PUC order that it add at least 1,000 new jobs in California payroll within three years, over and above the combined headcount of Spring and T-Mobile when the merger closed. The company asserts that the PUC doesn’t have the legal authority to dictate its employment levels, a position with which the commission, obviously, disagrees. T-Mobile also is trying out a position that has already become common in corporate America and is destined to become more so: It says it needs to back away from its promises because of the coronavirus.