T-Mobile, Sprint Merger Will Reportedly Be Cleared By US National Security Panel

According to CNBC, T-Mobile and Sprint are expecting their merger to be approved by a U.S. national security panel as early as next week, after their respective parent companies said they would consider dropping Huawei. From the report: U.S. government officials have been pressuring T-Mobile's German majority owner, Deutsche Telekom, to stop using Huawei equipment, the sources said, over concerns that Huawei is effectively controlled by the Chinese state and its network equipment may contain "back doors" that could enable cyber espionage, something which Huawei denies. That pressure is part of the national security review of T-Mobile's $26 billion deal to buy U.S. rival Sprint, the sources said.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has been conducting a national security review of the Sprint deal, which was announced in April. Negotiations between the two companies and the U.S. government have not been finalized and any deal could still fall through, the sources cautioned. Sprint's parent, SoftBank Group, plans to replace 4G network equipment from Huawei with hardware from Nokia and Ericsson, Nikkei reported on Thursday, without citing sources.

FCC required changes. Anyone heard about FTC?

[raymorris]

I know the FCC put substantial conditions on the merger and hasn't yet approved the latest plan, revised to meet their conditions. The FCC should rule soon, unless they ask for more changes.

I haven't heard anything from the FTC for a few months, though. Anyone heard anything on that front?

DOJ seemed to be open to the idea, if it passes muster with FCC and FTC, but I haven't heard any news there either.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Fewer competitors in the market is bad. It invites cartels and prevents new entrants, which means prices go up, quality goes down, and nobody can do anything about it.

Re:Good

[ShanghaiBill]

Fewer competitors in the market is bad.

Not in this case. There are two big companies: AT&T and Verizon, and two midgets: T-Mobile and Sprint.

Without the merger, Sprint will likely fold soon, and T-Moble will continue to limp on as a weak competitor to the AT&T - Verizon quasi-duopoly.

With the merger, the combined company will be a stronger competitor, and we can have a triopoly instead. This is a good thing, and should be approved.

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[John.Banister]

This is a good thing, and should be approved.

By the government, maybe - T-Mobile should approve it only so long as Masayoshi Son has nothing to do with the customer facing policies of the combined company.

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[Dorianny]

Just because they are in the same sector doesn't mean they are directly competing against each other, just like there is few people trying to decide between Toyota and BMW. People that care for network coverage, speed and reliability look at Verizon and ATT and people that are looking for value look at T-mobile or Sprint. A Merged T-mobile/Sprint might decide to go up against the other 2 or it just might decide that its perfectly comfortable sitting alone in the lower-tier market

Re:

[io333]

lol competitor lol

enjoy the dry oligopolistic ass rape

We elected a pro-corporate anti-regulation

[rsilvergun]

administration. So yeah, it's going to be approved. Here's where said administration's supporters chime in with "But Hilary".... You know, we had a primary right? and we had a perfectly good candidate who could have won and would in all likelihood have opposed this merger...

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[account_deleted]

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[Known Nutter]

I'll bet you were on board with the "640K is enough memory" bullshit too.

He never [computerworld.com] said [wired.com] it. [google.com]

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[account_deleted]

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[Actually, I do RTFA]

I like T-mobile, I hate Sprint and I don't give a shit about 5G. Like, seriously am fine with 4G. It's not worth Sprint eating T-Mobile (since their management will wind up on top.)

It's going to be approved because it makes sense

[SuperKendall]

Neither T-Mobile nor Sprint can really keep up with Verizon or AT&T.

I myself am a T-Mobile customer currently. and I am LOOKING FORWARD to this merger. How many times can you say that about any merger of a company you like with any other? And yet I am, because I know my service coverage will improve, 5g rollout will improve, basically everything about T-Mobile should be getting better.

Sometimes things just make sense - and this is one of those times.