Yesterday, the Justice Department approved T-Mobile US Inc’s acquisition of Sprint Corp after it was under review for possible antitrust violations. The $26 billion-dollar merger is set to combine the third and fourth-largest mobile carriers. The Justice Department determined that this merger would improve competition at the top of the industry and accelerate the rollout of 5G technology for consumers. T-Mobile’s brand benefits greatly from this deal and its stock shot up 5% yesterday after the announcement.
This merger was significantly contingent on the involvement and capabilities of Dish Network, which is now the new fourth-largest wireless carrier. In the deal, Dish is set to receive Sprint’s wireless spectrum and prepaid brands containing 9.3 million customers. This merger creates a revamped third-place wireless service in T-Mobile, who will strive to compete with Verizon and AT&T in the new wave of 5G technology. Dish Network also intends to get involved as they have stated they will have a “5G broadband network capable of serving 70 percent of the U.S. population by June 2023.”
T-Mobile now boasts an expanded consumer base, which is crucial in the telecom business that has always been overly dependant on scale to secure more investment from subscriber revenue. T-Mobile will be able to utilize Sprint’s existing 2.5 GHz spectrum to continue its expansion into 5G and compete with Verizon and AT&T. American consumers are big winners in this deal as it will ignite a competitive landscape for the race to expansive high-quality 5G networks.
Business Barrage 