US House panels to hold joint hearing on Sprint and T-Mobile merger

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two US House panels will hold a joint hearing on February 13 on the $ 26 billion merger proposed by T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp. and its potential impact on consumers.

The House Committee on Energy and Trade and the Judiciary Committee will hold a joint hearing to "examine the potential impacts of the merger on consumers, workers and the wireless sector," the committee said in a statement. statement released Monday. John Legere, General Manager of T-Mobile, and Marcelo Claure, President of Sprint, agreed to testify.

"A merger between T-Mobile and Sprint would bring together two of the four largest mobile operators and operators with the largest number of low-income customers," said Senior Democrats in both panels and two subcommittees . "We are eager to look at this merger from the point of view of the interests of consumers and hard-working people."

The US Senate held a hearing on the merger in June.

Last month, in two national security reviews, the companies got the support of the merger, eliminating the main obstacles to their bid for merger.

The agreement was approved by the US Foreign Investment Committee, as well as the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, collectively called Team Telecom.

T-Mobile and Sprint, the third and fourth largest wireless carriers in the United States, told Team Telecom, in a document filed with the Federal Communications Commission, that it did not oppose to the merger after reviewing "national security, law enforcement and security issues."

T-Mobile had previously stated that it expects the transaction to be completed in the first half of 2019. US wireless carriers are still required to obtain antitrust approval from the Department of Justice and the Ministry of Justice. FCC.