US: Altice and Dish want intervention on T-Mobile-Sprint deal

The US$26 billion deal between the two US wireless carriers, which would shrink the wireless market to three big players from four, faces a review from the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Dish come out against the T-Mobile-Sprint merger. Dish says that data from other countries that experienced four-to-three reductions in the number of carriers to say that the T-Mobile-Sprint merger could lead to an increase in prices, not a decrease like T-Mo has claimed.

Cable provider Altice said in a filing with the FCC that it’s concerned about the T-Mobile-Sprint merger. Altice has an MVNO agreement with Sprint and is planning to utilize it to enter the wireless market in 2019, but the company is concerned that if the T-Mobile-Sprint merger goes through, it could have an effect on its ability to expand.

AT&T also filed a comment with the FCC regarding the T-Mobile-Sprint merger, too, and while it says that it’s not taking a position on the deal, its statements dopaint the merger in a negative light.

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