T-Mobile Under Pressure to Sweeten Sprint Package for DOJ Nod

T-Mobile suffered a significant setback in its bid for regulatory approval of its takeover of Sprint after failing to win over the Department of Justice (DOJ) with a remedy package, putting pressure on the companies to offer more concessions. "I don’t see how any concessions short of somehow helping to set up a new fourth competitor could make this deal palatable to DOJ,” said Gigi Sohn, a Benton senior fellow and former aide to previous Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler. The antitrust division may be worried that the companies’ promises to speed deployment of the next-generation of wireless technology (5G) doesn’t outweigh harm to consumers from combining two national carriers. If the division’s concerns are limited to competition in the market for pre-paid phone plans, where wireless customers pay as they go rather than taking out subscriptions, that problem is fixable, said Blair Levin, an analyst with New Street Research and a former FCC chief of staff. But if the DOJ is concerned about a deal that would leave just three national players, that presents a bigger challenge. “It is tough to thread the needle of a condition that the government would see as solving the problem and T-Mobile wouldn’t see as too expensive,” Levin said.