FCC Reportedly Dead Set Against Sprint/T-Mobile Merger

We have heard rumors that Sprint might be interested in acquiring T-Mobile and those rumors surfaced again recently when it was suggested that the purchase could take place in June/July this year. Given that T-Mobile and Sprint are the smaller of two four major carriers, it would be less of a monopoly compared to AT&T trying to acquire T-Mobile, suggesting that maybe regulators could let this one through.

Unfortunately it seems that even before the sale has been announced, the deal is already dead. This is according to a report by the New York Post whose source has told them that the FCC are apparently dead set against the merger. In fact stories about how Sprint is set to meet the FCC is believed to be a story planted by the company themselves in a bid to curry public favor.

This is according to the FCC’s Chairman, Tom Wheeler, who believes that the planted story was meant to put pressure on him to go along with their plans. T-Mobile seems to be particularly interested in such a merger, according to their CFO and marketing chief, both of whom saw potential in such a merger.

In fact the carrier’s CFO was recently quoted as saying that by merging both carriers, it would put the uncarrier initiative on steroids. The FCC is also expected to start selling government-owned spectrum next year, which they believe is a way for carriers to grow without having to acquire each other, which is typically the case when a carrier is in need of more spectrum for their services.

In any case we’ll just have to wait and see how this one plays out, but what do you guys think? Does a merger of T-Mobile and Sprint sound more appealing compared to AT&T and T-Mobile (whose relationship has since soured, by the way)?

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones, Rumors
Tags: Sprint, T-Mobile