FCC pauses review of Sprint and T-Mobile merger

Posted:
in General Discussion
Government stops the "shot clock" on the merger's review period, in order to take a look at modeling.

T-Mobile's John Legere


The Federal Communications Commission sent a letter to Sprint and T-Mobile Tuesday informing the carriers that it's pausing the current review of their merger.

"Today we are pausing the Commission's informal 180-day transaction shot clock in this proceeding. Additional time is necessary to allow for thorough staff and third-party review of newly submitted and anticipated modeling relied on by the Applicants," said the letter, signed by David B. Lawrence, head of the T-Mobile/Sprint Transaction Task Force, and Donald Stockdale Chief of the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.

The new facts requiring review include a revised network engineering model submitted by the parties in early September, the mentioning in a meeting of a T-Mobile business model called "Build 9," which was not reviewed by the FCC until recently and T-Mobile's recent disclosure that it "intends to submit additional economic modeling in support of the Applications, beyond that strictly responsive to the various economic analyses in the Petitions to Deny."

The 180-day clock, the FCC letter said, "will remain stopped until the Applicants have completed the record on which they intend to rely and a reasonable period of time has passed for.staff and third-party review. The Commission will decide whether to extend the deadline for reply comments after receiving the remainder of the Applicants' modeling submissions."

Sprint and T-Mobile announced in April that they had agreed to an all-stock merger worth $26 billion, with T-Mobile CEO John Legere to assume leadership of the combined company, to be called "New T-Mobile." The companies submitted their formal merger request to the FCC in June, in which they vowed to "deliver a robust, nationwide world-class 5G network and services sooner than otherwise possible."

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    Seriously same administration that pushed through tax cuts with hand writing in the margins and wants to push through a Supreme Court nominee without full disclosure of documents, needs extra time to review Sprint/T-Mobile merger. Now that’s hilarious...
    fastasleeptyler82stanhopebshankmazda 3sredgeminipa
  • Reply 2 of 12
    ronnronn Posts: 653member
    "Additional time is necessary to allow for thorough staff and third-party review of newly submitted and anticipated modeling relied on by the Applicants," said the letter, signed by David B. Lawrence, head of the T-Mobile/Sprint Transaction Task Force, and Donald Stockdale Chief of the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.

    Foolish of the merger partners to submit additional information months after the application. The government will take up an 
    inordinate amount of time and this allows third party to do the same.
  • Reply 3 of 12
    Anti-monopoly regulations are absurd, outdated concepts. The freer are the markets, the greater will be competition and the lower the odds that businesses and government will collude to stifle and prevent competition.
    edited September 2018 kingofsomewherehot
  • Reply 4 of 12
    This shouldn’t have even gotten this far to begin with. Less competition means higher prices for the consumer. I remember the huge stink the ATT/TMobile merger talks caused back in 2011. Everyone was against that! Now all of a sudden it’s ok for TMobile/Sprint to merge?

    Not like I would ever use Sprint or TMobile because they are the crappiest of wireless services in my area, but still. This has the potential to raise prices on AT&T and Verizon’s end. Sprint and TMobile (here at least) are mainly used by low to low/middle income folks while AT&T and Verizon are pricier but provide superior service in much more areas making them a very reliable wireless service provider. 
  • Reply 5 of 12
    TMobile needs to make its  Service better  & it’s not  unlimited they need to stop telling that lie. 
  • Reply 6 of 12
    This shouldn’t have even gotten this far to begin with. Less competition means higher prices for the consumer. I remember the huge stink the ATT/TMobile merger talks caused back in 2011. Everyone was against that! Now all of a sudden it’s ok for TMobile/Sprint to merge?

    Not like I would ever use Sprint or TMobile because they are the crappiest of wireless services in my area, but still. This has the potential to raise prices on AT&T and Verizon’s end. Sprint and TMobile (here at least) are mainly used by low to low/middle income folks while AT&T and Verizon are pricier but provide superior service in much more areas making them a very reliable wireless service provider. 
    Dude, you literally just answered your own question. You fully admitted Sprint and T-Mobile can’t compete alone. The difference with the AT&T/T-Mobile merger was that AT&T is already a market power and was trying to stifle competition. At least in your scenario, and many others I might add, a Sprint/T-Mobile merger would actually INCREASE competition because it would finally give you a viable third option to look at instead of just going with either AT&T or Verizon, and leaving the other two to the “poor” people, as you stated.
    redgeminipaSpamSandwichronn
  • Reply 7 of 12
    AF_Hitt said:
    This shouldn’t have even gotten this far to begin with. Less competition means higher prices for the consumer. I remember the huge stink the ATT/TMobile merger talks caused back in 2011. Everyone was against that! Now all of a sudden it’s ok for TMobile/Sprint to merge?

    Not like I would ever use Sprint or TMobile because they are the crappiest of wireless services in my area, but still. This has the potential to raise prices on AT&T and Verizon’s end. Sprint and TMobile (here at least) are mainly used by low to low/middle income folks while AT&T and Verizon are pricier but provide superior service in much more areas making them a very reliable wireless service provider. 
    Dude, you literally just answered your own question. You fully admitted Sprint and T-Mobile can’t compete alone. The difference with the AT&T/T-Mobile merger was that AT&T is already a market power and was trying to stifle competition. At least in your scenario, and many others I might add, a Sprint/T-Mobile merger would actually INCREASE competition because it would finally give you a viable third option to look at instead of just going with either AT&T or Verizon, and leaving the other two to the “poor” people, as you stated.
    The more competition, the better. It doesn’t always have to be great competition. And I said they suck in MY area. I’ve heard that TMobile and Sprint actually have pretty decent service in other markets where AT&T and Verizon don’t. So I’m sure they’re not suffering!
    edited September 2018
  • Reply 8 of 12
    AF_Hitt said:
    This shouldn’t have even gotten this far to begin with. Less competition means higher prices for the consumer. I remember the huge stink the ATT/TMobile merger talks caused back in 2011. Everyone was against that! Now all of a sudden it’s ok for TMobile/Sprint to merge?

    Not like I would ever use Sprint or TMobile because they are the crappiest of wireless services in my area, but still. This has the potential to raise prices on AT&T and Verizon’s end. Sprint and TMobile (here at least) are mainly used by low to low/middle income folks while AT&T and Verizon are pricier but provide superior service in much more areas making them a very reliable wireless service provider. 
    Dude, you literally just answered your own question. You fully admitted Sprint and T-Mobile can’t compete alone. The difference with the AT&T/T-Mobile merger was that AT&T is already a market power and was trying to stifle competition. At least in your scenario, and many others I might add, a Sprint/T-Mobile merger would actually INCREASE competition because it would finally give you a viable third option to look at instead of just going with either AT&T or Verizon, and leaving the other two to the “poor” people, as you stated.
    The more competition, the better. It doesn’t always have to be great competition. And I said they suck in MY area. I’ve heard that TMobile and Sprint actually have pretty decent service in other markets where AT&T and Verizon don’t. So I’m sure they’re not suffering!
    Most of the time I would agree that more competition is better, but the wireless carriers are in a unique situation where there is limited wireless spectrum to offer and it costs billions of dollars to inplement and maintain the networks. Even with the merger Verizon and AT&T will still be 1 & 2 respectively. I’d rather have three strong carriers to choose from rather than two. 
    ronn
  • Reply 9 of 12
    I have T Mobile.  It's better service than AT&T, it's far better pricing than Verizon.

    I used to have AT&T, never again.

    And I don't want Sprint.  I don't ever want Sprint.  

    This merger is a horrible idea, and it needs to be stopped.  As far as that goes, four carriers aren't enough.  The government needs to break up AT&T again, and break up Verizon while they're at it.
  • Reply 10 of 12
    darkvader said:
    I have T Mobile.  It's better service than AT&T, it's far better pricing than Verizon.

    I used to have AT&T, never again.

    And I don't want Sprint.  I don't ever want Sprint.  

    This merger is a horrible idea, and it needs to be stopped.  As far as that goes, four carriers aren't enough.  The government needs to break up AT&T again, and break up Verizon while they're at it.
    The government should stay as far away from these deals as possible. Let markets and customers decide which companies win or lose.
    redraider11
  • Reply 11 of 12
    ronnronn Posts: 653member
    darkvader said:
    I have T Mobile.  It's better service than AT&T, it's far better pricing than Verizon.

    I used to have AT&T, never again.

    And I don't want Sprint.  I don't ever want Sprint.  

    This merger is a horrible idea, and it needs to be stopped.  As far as that goes, four carriers aren't enough.  The government needs to break up AT&T again, and break up Verizon while they're at it.

    I also have T-Mobile.

    The government will never break up the two behemoths. That's why they need to let this go through and allow the smaller two combined companies compete with the AT&T and Verizon.

    I hated Sprint's horrible service, had horrible customer service with AT&T, and Verizon is a money pit.

    T-Mobile and Sprint combined with the former in charge gives them a fighting chance.
    SpamSandwich
  • Reply 12 of 12
    darkvader said:
    I have T Mobile.  It's better service than AT&T, it's far better pricing than Verizon.

    I used to have AT&T, never again.

    And I don't want Sprint.  I don't ever want Sprint.  

    This merger is a horrible idea, and it needs to be stopped.  As far as that goes, four carriers aren't enough.  The government needs to break up AT&T again, and break up Verizon while they're at it.
    So, you have T-Mobile, but don't want T-Mobile to absorb Sprints Spectrum, customer base, and assets? You do realize T-Mobile is going to use these assets and spectrum to expand the T-Mobile network, while dismantling Sprint as we know it today. I don't see how this is not good for you and every other T-Mobile customer. Good for Sprint customers too, as they'll be converted over to T-Mobile customers.
    edited September 2018 SpamSandwich
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