It finally happened.
TL;DR – the T-Mobile / Sprint merger has been cleared as of a few minutes ago by a US District judge.
This overrides multiple states objections to the mergers based on that the states have failed to convince the judge that Sprint/T-Mobile would pursue anticompetitive behavior, or that soon after the mergers would yield higher prices for consumers.
It also ruled it believed Sprint was as bad as we’ve all thought with no ideas on how to stay afloat in the future, so there’s that going for it. We’ve now got a roadmap for generally perceived anticompetitive mergers – play clueless and cash strapped.
Sprint and T-Mobile had to make some concessions before the merger including that they would deploy a 5G network covering 97% of the US within three years of closing the deal, so in 2023 at this point you can expect almost 50% 5G coverage.
Sprint also has to sell Boost, Virgin, and auction off some of the wireless spectrum to Dish.
[NBC News]
