AT&T CFO Skeptical About Sprint T-Mobile Merger

The entire idea behind a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile is to compete much more effectively against Verizon and AT&T. At least that’s the case the folks at Sprint and Softbank are trying to make. Regulators might not be so easily convinced. AT&T tried to buy T-Mobile US for itself back in 2011 for $39 billion but was shot down by regulators. The company’s CFO John Stephens is skeptical about the merger, he “doesn’t think” that its going to go through.

Stephens believes that it would be very surprising if federal regulators change their minds about consolidation in the U.S. mobile market. “I don’t think they will,” says Stephens, speculating about the reaction of federal regulators if and when a formal bid is submitted by Sprint for T-Mobile. The entire premise of shooting down AT&T’s bid was that regulators believed four national carriers would ensure proper competition.

On the other hand, Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son is making the rounds in Washington to gain support for the merger. His argument is that the merger would give Sprint the scalability to install new infrastructure that would vastly improve the network’s service and give it the push it needs to take on the two behemoths, AT&T and Verizon.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile