The Federal Communications Commission has officially approved the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint this Wednesday.
The committee went in favor of the merger by 3 against 2 votes, where Chairman Ajit Pai and the two Republican commissioners Brendan Carr and Michael O’Rielly approved the deal while two Democratic commissioners Rosenworcel and Starks stood in disagreement.
This April, T-Mobile and Sprint, which are the third and fourth largest wireless service provides in US, announced a whooping $26 billion deal, which, without a surprise, alerted a lot of their competitors. The companies stated that they will pose a better competition against Verizon and AT&T as a combined unit. However, the attorneys stated that this merger will only increases the 5G prices for the consumers.
After a series of ifs and buts, the deal was finally approved by the Justice Department in July. And today, with the approval of FCC as well, the only hurdle remaining to this alliance is is a multi-state lawsuit, which both the companies are aggresively working on.
Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who was in against the alliance said;
We’ve all seen what happens when markets become more concentrated after a merger like this one. In the airline industry, it brought us baggage fees and smaller seats. In the pharmaceutical industry, it led to a handful of drug companies raising the prices of lifesaving medications. There’s no reason to think this time will be different. Overwhelming evidence demonstrates that the T-Mobile-Sprint merger will reduce competition, raise prices, lower quality, and slow innovation.
