The T-Mobile and Sprint Merger Will Only Hurt Consumers
When market concentration increased after past mergers, prices surged and jobs were lost. There’s no reason to think this time will be different.
Today, as a commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission, I voted to block the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint, the country’s third- and fourth-largest wireless carriers. But I am only one of five votes at the agency, and a majority of my colleagues have already voiced their support for this transaction. On top of that, the Department of Justice recently reached an agreement with the carriers, giving them a green light to combine. The largest wireless merger in history is now headed toward approval. If you own a mobile phone—as 96 percent of American adults do—that’s bad news.
We’ve all seen what happens when market concentration increases following a merger. A condensed airline
