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Just one day after T-Mobile CEO John Legere publishes a blog explaining how the new T-Mobile will help bridge the digital divide, 24 entities, including Dish, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA)) – sent an open letter to federal officials urging them to reject the T-Mobile / Sprint agreement.
The letter came after the Wall Street Journal announced on Tuesday that the proposed merger could pose a problem for justice ministry staff. Several state prosecutors are also examining the agreement.
Legere promised that the deal would create more jobs if it were approved, but opponents insist it will threaten thousands of jobs in the US and give the remaining wireless operators greater control over the market to maintain wages in the sector.
In their letter to Deputy Attorney General Makan Delrahim and FCC President Ajit Pai, critics indicated that opposition to the plan has intensified over the past 11 months and their concerns have been raised. mainly rural areas.
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"Although the parties are touting the alleged merger benefits for rural Americans, the evidence demonstrates that the merger would do nothing to improve the services offered to these consumers," says the opposition letter. "On the technical side, the spectrum of merged parties would not be particularly suited to rural coverage. Instead, the parties would face the same challenge that exists today, namely the need for significant capital investments to reach sparsely populated areas. "
Even more troubling, they said, instead of improving coverage, the merger threatens to undermine services for rural Americans. "Today, Sprint distinguishes itself by its willingness to sell its wholesale network to rural wireless network operators, thus making roaming services available to their customers, as well as to educational entities that praise Spectrum Sprint, "they wrote. "T-Mobile, on the other hand, has not shown such an interest in partnering with rural providers or pursuing public-private partnerships with educational entities."
RELATED: Sprint blames the network for most of its "difficult situation" which only worsens
In contrast, Legere said that if the merger is approved, New T-Mobile will have a sufficiently large network to challenge the status quo and help reduce the digital divide. "T-Mobile has also already expanded our reach in rural America with our aggressive LTE deployment in the 700 and 600 MHz frequency bands," said Legere.
"But by combining our rich 600 MHz coverage spectrum with Sprint's 2.5 GHz capacity-rich spectrum, we'll be covering more countries with 5G service than any one company alone." ", he added, reiterating his promise to cover 95.8% of the country's approximately 62 million rural residents benefiting from 5G service and providing mobile broadband service with download speeds of at least 10 Mbps .
RELATED: New T-Mobile will be on the market for more spectrum: Legere
Proponents of the transaction point out that even with the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile, Verizon and AT & T would still have nearly three times the market capitalization of the combined companies.
Legere reiterated that the new T-Mobile would be a reinforced sniper and a strong third competitor of the Big Two. "We would have the opportunity to compete with AT & T and Verizon and have a significant impact by expanding access and ensuring ALL consumers an affordable mobile service option", a- he declared.
Analysts at Moffett Nathanson Research have pointed out that one of the arguments that AT & T relied on for acquiring T-Mobile when it was in play several years ago was that it would make a player stronger, but T- Mobile then continued the "Un-Carrier" and made things happen for the entire industry. "Washington continues to take turns to make this decision," analysts said in a note to investors earlier this month.
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