T-Mobile Wins $26.5B Sprint Deal Approval With Plan To Create Rival

The Justice Department approved T-Mobile's acquisition of Sprint, a deal it rejected under the previous administration, clearing one of the biggest hurdles to a takeover that will reshape the wireless industry. From a report: T-Mobile and Sprint agreed to sell multiple assets to Dish Network as a condition for approval, paving the way to creating a new wireless company, the Justice Department said in a statement Friday. The carriers have promised to deploy a 5G network that would cover 97% of the U.S. population within three years and 99% within six years. "The remedies set up Dish as a disruptive force in wireless," said Makan Delrahim, the head of the Justice Department's antitrust division, during a briefing with reporters.

This is not going to end well

[rsilvergun]

T-Mobile trying to survive and compete against the big 3 is what made Cell Phone data plan prices collapse and put a stop (mostly) to massive overage and roaming bills. Anyone over 40 should remember a time when it wasn't uncommon to get a $2000 bill you were lucky to talk down to $500. Remember that "uncarrier" crap? Sure, it was dumb, but it meant something. They were the first to offer decent speeds with an unlimited plan as something other than a bait and switch.

Re:

[Powercntrl]

Remember that "uncarrier" crap? Sure, it was dumb, but it meant something.

Actually, it was all marketing spin. T-Mobile has always had a superiority complex considering their abysmal network coverage, and they were dead last in getting the iPhone. They weren't even offering data on their prepaid plans, at a time when Boost Mobile (a wholly owned subsidiary of Sprint) had just launched their $50/mo unlimited plan.

The real disruptive company was actually Sprint. Their network was equally bad as T-Mobile, but they at least owned up to it and offered crazy deals (such as SERO, bac

What a joke

[MobyDisk]

The carriers have promised to deploy a 5G network that would cover 97% of the U.S. population within three years and 99% within six years.

pfffffffffffftttttt!!!! And who is going to make sure they do that? The US regulators always give telecom monopolies these deals and they never uphold their end of the deal. The telecom companies know it takes the US regulators a decade to catch-up.

Later on it says:

required to provide Dish with access to its mobile network for seven years

That's failed in the past too. The telecom monopolies were supposed to allow 3rd-party DSL and internet companies access to their wires. But they dragged their feet and added obstacles to accessing the telephone CO's. It's a conflict of interest. You can't expect a company to efficiently do something that is not in its best interest.

Re:

[Solandri]

required to provide Dish with access to its mobile network for seven years

That's failed in the past too. The telecom monopolies were supposed to allow 3rd-party DSL and internet companies access to their wires. But they dragged their feet and added obstacles to accessing the telephone CO's. It's a conflict of interest. You can't expect a company to efficiently do something that is not in its best interest.

It's already being done with cellular service [wikipedia.org]. Every one of these cellular carriers [wikipedia.org] isn't an indepen

Eh, not that much is going to change

[Dallas May]

Your bill will still go up incrementally over time.
There will still be incrementally fewer phone makers over time.
There will still be only two cell phone operating systems.
You will still be able to purchase repackaged and de-prioritized service from resellers.
Every cell phone company will still make unreasonable claims about their proposed 5G service that they will never be able to meet.
Soon enough, every cell phone company will begin to make unreasonable claims about their proposed 6G service that they wil

Dish? What did that have to do with this?

[ron_ivi]

Strange that the dish assets are what the regulators were worried about.

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[account_deleted]

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The good news is that it will

[bobstreo]

now be much easier to integrate when Verizon or AT&T buys them in the next 5 years or less.

Schizo government

[Powercntrl]

So, they're looking into breaking up "big tech", in an industry where literally anyone can register a domain and become a competitor, but don't see any problem with companies merging in an industry where the barrier of entry* is so high it's basically impossible? It's clear which industry has done a better job buying politicians.

* Starting an actual wireless company (as opposed to a MVNO, which just buys service wholesale from an existing carrier and resells it to end users) requires spectrum licenses (an