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The Federal Communications Commission today announced that it would pause the so-called shooting clock over its 180-day review period for the merger between Sprint and T-Mobile. The stopwatch in question is an informal six month deadline for approval as of the announcement of the merger (again) in April this year.
The FCC now says "additional time is required to allow staff and a third party to review newly submitted and anticipated templates." The letter is written by David Lawrence, Director of the T-Mobile / T-Mobile Trading Task Force. Sprint. Donald Stockdale, chief of the Wireless Telecommunication Bureau.
The two companies, once combined, would still have fewer customers than AT & T and Verizon. However, Sprint and T-Mobile executives said the merger would allow the US to better compete with other countries in deploying robust mobile 5G networks and allowing the two companies to combine would help deploy these networks. . and Verizon. Earlier in the day, Verizon announced that the first 5G commercial broadband Internet home network will be launched on October 1 in four US cities.
With respect to the stopwatch, the Panel is particularly concerned about the delay with which it received key information about the network engineering model and construction proposed by Sprint and T-Mobile; a T-Mobile financial model for the way it plans to pay for the network engineering model that telecoms call "Build 9"; and additional economic modeling of T-Mobile. He received a lot of information on these issues on September 5, explains the letter.
"Given the complexity and potential significance of these newly provided and expected models, the 180-day informal clock needs to be stopped to allow time for review," writes Lawrence and Stockdale. "The clock will stop until the applicants have completed the file they intend to rely on and a reasonable time has passed for the review of staff and third parties."
The Commission has already done so in the past for other business mergers, and it is quite possible that it may further extend the response time after proceeding with the business. 39, review of new third party modeling. In a statement given to EngadgetT-Mobile said it was "confident" that this additional review would be beneficial for the merger:
We recognize that the FCC takes the time to fully understand the benefits of T-Mobile's merger with Sprint. Additional review time is common to FCC merger reviews. We are convinced that this transaction is pro-competitive, good for the country and good for US consumers. We look forward to working with the FCC as it evaluates our plans to quickly roll out the country's first deep and extensive national 5G network.
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