The pending merger of T-Mobile and Sprint presents regulators with a perfect opportunity to further propel the wireless success story in the United States. This is a story about ceaseless innovation, fierce competition, and incredible consumer gains, positioning mobile technologies at the center of American life:

• Pew reports that 95% of all American adults own a cellphone, with 77% owning a smartphone.
• Adults spend an average of 5 hours each day on their mobile devices, checking them constantly from the moment they wake until they go to sleep.
• Children are a growing part of the mobile revolution: Common Sense Media has found that kids aged 0-8 spend nearly an hour every day with a mobile device, watching videos and playing games. Nearly half have their own device.
• For an array of reasons, a growing share of households are smartphone-dependent for internet access, a trend that is particularly evident “among younger adults, non-whites and lower-income Americans.”
• It is estimated that, by next year, the time spent on one’s smartphone each day will overtake time spent watching TV, an astounding shift in a country that was once defined by its obsession with the boob tube. The shift in advertising spending, away from TV and toward mobile, has been evident for the last few years.