T-Mobile/Sprint Puts Conditions on the Table in Meeting at FCC
T-Mobile and Sprint representatives met with FCC officials Thursday to discuss conditions on their proposed deal, industry officials confirmed Friday. While the two carriers have been at the FCC many times in the year since the proposal was announced, industry…
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observers have been waiting for signs that conditions were on the table. “For the first time since the merger announcement, we see signs that the prospects for federal approval of the T-Mobile/Sprint deal improving,” New Street’s Blair Levin told investors Friday. “Normally, companies seeking to merge usually try to obtain a sign-off from the DOJ first and would not go to the FCC unless they have a high level of comfort that the DOJ is conceptually on board with approval and a framework for conditions.” A second possibility, less likely, is the companies are seeking FCC approval apart from any decision by DOJ, Levin said. Also last week, the Communications Workers of America slammed an April 16 letter from T-Mobile disputing points CWA had made on the company buying Sprint. “When T-Mobile doesn’t like the message, it tries to shoot the messenger,” CWA said in FCC docket 18-197. “Rather than respond to the merits of the points CWA raised in its letter dated March 22, 2019, the company dodges the issues, creates strawmen, and makes baseless credibility arguments. As it has done throughout this proceeding, T-Mobile uses highly inflammatory language to try to vilify those who bring forward facts it does not like.” T-Mobile said then, “CWA’s latest letter continues its campaign of half-truths, unsound methodology, and outright misrepresentations in this proceeding.”