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In July, the Justice Ministry cleared T-Mobile's takeover of Sprint, paving the way for the country's third and fourth largest mobile phone companies to merge, becoming a titan rivaling AT & T and Verizon. Sixteen states have filed lawsuits to block the merger, and some congressional Democrats are currently lobbying for the Federal Communications Commission to postpone an announced vote on the opportunity to grant the agreement final sign of his approval.
Sen. Democrat Amy Klobuchar and her Senate colleagues, Cirst Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Elizabeth Warren (both presidential candidates) were among those who signed a letter on Friday asking the FCC to "publish a public notice and solicit public comments on the proposal ". "merger" before going to vote. Senators stated that they feared that this agreement would harm competition by further consolidating the wireless telecommunications sector under the control of a handful of gigantic corporations, concerns that seemed to be shared by some members of the Ministry of Telecommunications. Justice earlier this year, while the agency was planning to intervene.
"We have significant antitrust concerns regarding the impact of the proposed T-Mobile / Sprint merger on consumers, competition and the public interest," the senators wrote in their letter. "We remain concerned about the lack of transparency in the FCC merger review process and the lack of certainty that this merger protects competition and consumers."
"For these reasons, we urge the FCC to issue a public notice and ask the public to comment on the proposed amalgamation by the Consent Decree and the terms set out in Dish's extension application letter before its review of the merger to determine if is in the public interest, "they added.
The Ministry of Justice's revised amalgamation agreement would establish Dish Network as the fourth-largest national mobile operator using the T-Mobile network, and also require the merged company to sell its spectrum of commercial wireless services and prepaid to Dish. There was speculation that Dish had no intention of creating a serious competing network and instead was planning to invert the spectrum to make huge profits. As the Verge pointed out, David N. Cicilline, Chair of the House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law, also wrote Thursday a letter describing the proposal as "allegedly unlawful in light of several decades of black letter law and Ministry of Justice guidelines on merger control ". He also believes the law requires the FCC to allow public comment before a vote.
The three FCC Republican Commissioners have expressed support for the merger with President Ajit Pai arguing that this agreement will accelerate the deployment of next-generation 5G technology and help eliminate the "digital divide" between the richest and poorest states. Jessica Rosenworcel, one of the two Democratic Commissioners, argued that more competition was needed and she was not convinced that the agreement would result in better service, and that the Review process of the agreement was "very unusual" and looked like transaction. "
The lawsuit filed by the 16 US states will not be litigated in December, with T-Mobile and Sprint agreeing that the deal will not be concluded until it is resolved. . This means that the FCC has plenty of time to ask for its opinion. Even though Mr. Pai's term was normal, the agency indicated that he intended to proceed without it.
"This transaction has been pending before the Board for more than a year and there have been many cycles of public comment," said a spokesman for the FCC. "In addition, the commitments proposed by T-Mobile and Sprint to the Commission have been public since May and many parties have commented on this. The time has come for the commissioners to vote and close this procedure. "
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