The Federal Communications Commission has voted 3-2 to approve T-Mobile’s acquisition of Sprint, an FCC spokesperson confirmed to Ars today.
Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Michael O’Rielly backed Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposal to allow the merger, while Democrats Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks voted against it.
T-Mobile and Sprint previously secured merger approval from the Department of Justice, so the deal has been fully cleared by the federal government. But the companies won’t be completing the merger just yet, as they face a lawsuit from a group of state attorneys general who are trying to block the deal.
The FCC hasn’t released its merger approval order publicly. But the final document should reflect what Chairman Pai proposed in May, requiring the merged company to deploy 5G to 97% of the US population within three years and to 99% of Americans within six years. That includes deploying 5G to 85% of rural Americans within three years and 90% within six years.
Investigation into Sprint continues
There is at least one addition to the merger order, though. Commissioner Starks had called for the FCC to halt its merger proceeding while the agency investigates a discovery that Sprint took millions of dollars in government subsidies for “serving” 885,000 low-income Americans who weren’t using Sprint service.
Instead of delaying the merger approval order, Pai added some language that acknowledges the ongoing investigation. Starks said that isn’t enough.
“The rush to judgment here is exemplified by the fact that it was only in response to questions from my office that the draft was amended at the last minute to explicitly preserve liability for these and any other potential violations,” Starks said in a statement today.
Democrats predict higher prices
Starks and Rosenworcel both criticized the merger approval in their statements today. Starks said:
The expert staff of the Commission and the Justice Department have agreed that the merger between T-Mobile and Sprint, as originally submitted, would likely harm competition and raise prices. Rather than denying that merger, however, the majority has turned to the parties for paper-thin commitments that they contend will expand broadband access and the deployment of 5G.
But these promises cannot mask reality. You don’t need to be an expert to know that going from four wireless carriers to three will hurt competition. This merger takes a bad situation and makes it worse. Higher prices and fewer options across the country will inevitably result. Quite simply, the effects of this ill-conceived merger will hit low-income and rural communities hardest of all.
Rosenworcel argued that “Overwhelming evidence demonstrates that the T-Mobile-Sprint merger will reduce competition, raise prices, lower quality, and slow innovation.”