US: T-Mobile/Sprint deal would be a “win” for Rural America, said DOJ official

A US$26 billion merger between T-Mobile and Sprint would increase competition and benefit consumers, said Department of Justice (DOJ) Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim at a Senate Panel Tuesday, September 17, according to Fox News.  

The US$26 billion merger deal between the two wireless companies had generated a lot of heat with demands for stopping the deal over concerns of reduced competition and fears of higher prices to consumers.

Delrahim told a panel attached to the Senate’s Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that the agency examined the deal at length for 13 months before it gave the nod.

“You’re now going to have Sprint, T-Mobile combined, with the remedies we put in, providing real competition to AT&T and Verizon for the first time to consumers,” Delrahim said.

When asked by Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, whether the Trump administration had any influence over the Justice Department’s decision — citing hundreds of thousands of dollars spent by T-Mobile executives at the Trump Hotel while seeking approval for the merger — Delrahim said his decisions were not based on the “hotel stays of merging parties.”

“My enforcement decision is not bought by a couple hundred thousand bucks of hotel stays,” Delrahim said.

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