T-Mobile/Sprint to Sell All of Sprint's Prepaid Business, DOJ Says in Settlement
DOJ and attorneys general for five states said they reached a settlement with T-Mobile and Sprint on their proposed deal. The settlement goes further than the companies’ earlier proposal at the FCC.
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The companies agreed to divest Sprint’s prepaid business, including Boost, Virgin Mobile and Sprint prepaid, to Dish Network. The new T-Mobile will also sell spectrum to Dish and make available at least 20,000 cellsites and hundreds of retail locations. “T-Mobile must also provide Dish with robust access to the T-Mobile network for a period of seven years while Dish builds out its own 5G network,” DOJ said.
Participating AGs are from Nebraska, Kansas, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Dakota. “With this merger and accompanying divestiture, we are expanding output significantly by ensuring that large amounts of currently unused or underused spectrum are made available to American consumers in the form of high quality 5G networks,” said DOJ antitrust Chief Makan Delrahim.
The combining companies said that the "DOJ action moves the merger one step closer to closing, pending other regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other closing conditions." It's an "incredibly important step forward for the New T-Mobile," said that carrier's CEO, John Legere.