[ad_1]
Updated June 27, 2018 at 19:33. AND
The bosses of
T-Mobile US
Inc. and
Sprint
Corp.
said that a merger project would create more jobs than it eliminates and pledged to continue lowering prices because the two leaders defended their $ 26 billion deal before the Congress.
Executive Chairman Sprint
Marcelo Claure
and the general manager of T-Mobile
John Legere
told a Senate subcommittee that their agreement to consolidate US wireless providers # 3 and # 4 would provide the new entity with resources that could not be accessed by both companies alone.
"We struggled to break even" as an independent business, said Mr. Claure at the hearing, which prompted fewer questions than expected from senators after the surprise departure of the Supreme Court.
Anthony Kennedy.
He said that the unification of forces would allow the new company to spend more for service upgrades.
The antitrust authorities of the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice, and not the Congress, have authority over the agreement, which means that Wednesday's testimony influenced public perception more than the legal status of the court. # 39; agreement. But the perception could be taken into account in a regulatory review expected to be over in 2019.
"It's an agreement in which the political landscape matters enormously," said
Blair Levin,
an badyst for New Street Research. Mr. Levin said the odds are slightly favorable for the agreement to be blocked, even though uncertainty hangs over the process.
Antitrust standards have been reversed since the president
Donald Trump
election. The Justice Department surprised observers last year in
AT & T
Inc.
takeover of Time Warner Inc., an agreement that some antitrust experts find difficult to pursue. AT & T won this deal and closed its purchase earlier this month.
The White House has also broken with the convention by publicly weighing on other transactions, including
Walt Disney
The Co. offer for badets of
21st Century Fox
Inc.
Fox and the owner of the Wall Street Journal
News Corp
share common property.
If anything makes the T-Mobile plan to take Sprint unique, it's the relative silence of the administration. Officials from the DOJ and the FCC have hinted that they were willing to accept the deal, but the White House has not yet made public comments on it.
Business people say the leaders live in fear of a presidential tweet about the deal and will consider it a victory if the White House remains silent.
AT & T's failed bid for T-Mobile in 2011 in the middle of the Obama administration's opposition often appeared during the hearing. Antitrust hawks claim that a derailed transaction forced the four domestic wireless carriers of the market to reduce prices more aggressively, thus helping consumers.
Messrs. Claure and Legere argue that the market has changed since 2011. Companies plan to use savings from shared resources to invest in the fifth-generation service. This 5G technology promises broadband data rates, which companies say customers can use to completely drop out of fixed Internet service.
Businesses are also touting plans to expand wireless service to the outside of cities more quickly and create jobs, which may be of interest to lawmakers in rural states.
Other companies have added a cell phone service in recent years, reinforcing the business argument that they are no longer competing in a four-player market.
Comcast
Corp.
, for example, added more postpaid cell phone customers than any other company in the first quarter by offering plans that run at the top
Verizon Communications
Inc.
network.
Mr. Legere called for wireless incursions by Comcast Corp. and
Charter Communications
Inc.
a "charade" and "irrelevant" in conference calls with badysts and investors, although he said Wednesday that times had changed.
"They are not competing at the level they should," said Mr. Legere, although cable providers continue to add wireless customers. "They are viable competitors."
Gene Kimmelman, head of the left-wing advocacy group Public Knowledge, said the deal could be problematic for customers on prepaid plans that can not afford to pay a few dollars more for a mobile data plan. "We do not all want to fly in supersonic Concorde," he said. "Some people want an ordinary plane."
Mr. Legere said the agreement would allow businesses to share spectrum more efficiently, reducing the cost of wireless service per gigabyte. "This consolidation will bring down prices," he said.
The T-Mobile leader has stopped promising that the case would not kill some jobs, though. The company plan provides for new call centers currently abroad and more rural stores that compensate for reduced retail positions in predominantly urban areas.
When asked if the agreement would increase the likelihood that the combined firm would coordinate prices with AT & T and Verizon, Mr. Legere was derided by him. "They would not talk to me if we were together in a crowded room."
Write to Drew FitzGerald at [email protected]
Appeared in the print edition of June 28, 2018 under the name "T-Mobile, Sprint Boss Defend Merger".
Source link
