Three states join AG group to study Sprint and T-Mobile merger project

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Attorneys General of Arizona, Michigan, and Pennsylvania have joined a group of states investigating T-Mobile's plans to buy rival Sprint for $ 26 billion. which should soon be completed.

US Attorneys General made the filings this week, telling the Federal Communications Commission that they were considering joining a Justice Department investigation and needed access to documents .

The agreement received FCC support last month. FCC President Ajit Pai announced Thursday that he was considering issuing a draft decree asking his fellow commissioners to approve the deal in the coming weeks, but officials said that It might not be finished until early July.

That said, it still has to be approved by the Department of Justice, whose staff has recommended to halt the proposed merger.

The final decision whether or not to merge two of the four wireless operators nationwide will be made by the ministry's political leadership, led by the head of the antitrust division, Makan Delrahim.

The late participation of states is not unusual and their request for data may suggest that they study the impact of the merger on their states, including customer data moving from T Mobile to Sprint and vice versa, as well as other carriers.

State Attorneys General may, independently, attempt to sue to terminate the proposed transaction, although this is very unusual.

T-Mobile has a reputation for aggressively pursuing price reductions and service improvements to appeal to market leaders Verizon Communications Inc. and AT & T Inc., and antitrust authorities may want to maintain this momentum.