https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/zmpvxy/the-unpopular-sprint-t-mobile-merger-looks-increasingly-doomed

While Sprint and T-Mobile have been telling federal regulators that their $26.5 billion mega-merger will be great for consumers and competition, it’s becoming increasingly clear that some federal regulators just aren’t buying it. The deal would combine the nation’s third and fourth-biggest wireless carriers, reducing overall competition in a US wireless industry already featuring some of the highest data prices in the developed world. Consumer groups, unions, and Wall Street analysts also warn the deal could result in anywhere between 10,000 and 30,000 people losing their jobs. Granted, Sprint and T-Mobile executives have been telling the press, public, and regulators the exact opposite over the last year, claiming that reducing overall competitors will somehow increase competition and lower rates, all while somehow creating more jobs than ever before. But it’s not clear regulators are buying it. Reports in both the Wall Street Journal and Reuters indicate that the deal is “meeting some resistance” from Department of Justice antitrust enforcers worried about the deal’s impact on overall wireless competition. The reports claim the deal is unlikely to be approved by the DOJ as currently structured. T-Mobile CEO John Legere quickly took to Twitter to claim that the “premise” of the story was “simply untrue.”

But this isn’t the first example of regulators doubting the companies’ merger promises. A growing roster of state regulators and attorneys general have also expressed skepticism that the deal is in the public interest, noting that historically, such telecom sector consolidation harms both competition and consumer welfare.