Dish, C Spire Rally Final Push Against Merger Of T-Mobile And Sprint

December 7, 2018

As the public comment period closes on the FCC’s review of the proposed merger of Sprint and T-Mobile, opponents of the transaction are getting in their last shots.

“This transaction will lead to higher prices for tens of millions of consumers,” Dish Network wrote in a lengthy, and highly redacted, filing on the topic that takes aim at the underlying arguments that Sprint and T-Mobile have made that their proposed merger will lead to economic benefits for Americans. “American consumers cannot afford the increases that this merger will likely produce on top of these already high prices.”

Dish—which is currently building a nationwide NB-IoT network and has plans for a nationwide 5G network—has been among the most vocal opponents of the transaction, having filed hundreds of pages of detailed economic analysis against the merger. But Dish isn’t alone. C Spire, a telecom operator with around 1 million wireless customers mainly in the Southeast, has also made its opposition to the transaction clear. “The public interest will be best served by a denial of the Proposed Transaction which, if allowed, will remove Sprint, the acknowledged low cost provider of wholesale services, from the market,” C Spire wrote.

In a filing detailing a meeting between C Spire executives and FCC officials, the company argued that it needs suitable roaming partners in order to remain competitive, and it urged the FCC to require that T-Mobile maintain the Sprint CDMA network for five years in order to support roaming services for C Spire and other operators.

And the Communications Workers of America (CWA)—which is among a number of organizations calling for House hearings on the merger—also filed comments with the FCC arguing that the transaction would eliminate thousands of jobs. “The CWA analysis finds that the proposed merger would result in the loss of 30,000 jobs. Approximately 25,500 jobs would be eliminated as a result of overlapping retail store closures at postpaid and prepaid locations. Another 4,500 jobs would be eliminated due to duplicative functions at corporate headquarters in Overland Park, KS and Bellevue, WA,” the association wrote.

Read more at FierceWireless

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