OTI Urges Court to Reject T-Mobile/Sprint Merger

On Friday, New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) urged a federal court to reject the Justice Department’s convoluted scheme to approve the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint. In August, the Justice Department proposed approving the megamerger on the condition that Dish Network would be allowed to use T-Mobile infrastructure to provide a new wireless service and replace Sprint as the fourth competitor in the market. In comments filed Friday, OTI, Public Knowledge, Consumer Reports, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation said this proposal “violates many, if not all, of the Justice Department’s guiding principles for merger remedies … Betting the future of wireless competition in this country on a shaky set of promises and hopes would not serve the American consumer.”

The comments were filed under the Tunney Act, a 1974 law that requires a judge to evaluate DOJ’s merger remedies and ensure that they are acting in the public interest. The D.C. District Court is currently evaluating the government’s T-Mobile/Sprint proposal.

Meanwhile, New York, Texas, the District of Columbia, and 13 other states are suing to block the merger. On Friday, OTI asked the court to pause its Tunney Act review until this state lawsuit is complete.

The following quote can be attributed to Joshua Stager, senior counsel for New America’s Open Technology Institute:

“The courts should block this merger. It would be a disaster for consumers, the wireless market, and the digital divide. The Trump Administration’s convoluted remedy is not a serious solution to these anticompetitive harms, and it won’t work.

“The Justice Department is not acting in the public interest, as the Tunney Act requires. Thankfully, more than a dozen states understand this, which is why they are suing to block the deal under their own state authority. These states are standing up for the American people where the federal government has failed, and we applaud their efforts.”