Dish Network is close to securing a deal to pay $6 billion for Sprint's Boost Mobile brand and wireless spectrum, reports Bloomberg.
Sprint is selling Boost Mobile in an effort to unload assets to gain regulatory approval for its upcoming merger with T-Mobile. The two companies have been aiming to sell Boost Mobile to appease U.S. regulators who believe the merger raises antitrust concerns.
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The United States Justice Department wants Sprint and T-Mobile to ensure there continues to be a fourth major carrier in the country as the combined T-Mobile and Sprint company would leave just AT&T and Verizon as the other major carriers. Sprint and T-Mobile's combined company, set to be called T-Mobile and led by John Legere, would have close to 100 million customers.
Sprint and T-Mobile first announced a merger agreement in April 2018, but the completion of the deal requires government approval. As of May, U.S. regulators were said to be "leaning against" approving the merger unless some of T-Mobile and Sprint's assets were sold off.
Dish may be planning to announce a deal as soon as this week, according to sources who spoke to Bloomberg. The terms of the deal have not yet been finalized and it could still fall through, however.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)Hello DOJ: We don't need 4 major carriers... News flash, Sprint and T-Mobile each by themselves are not major carriers, they are minor carriers. We actually need them to merge to become big enough to actually compete with the likes of AT&T and Verizon. Their merger will HELP foster competition in the marketplace, not hurt it. The only caveat (which it looks like might have been taken into account here) is protection for MVNOs, and that should hold true for all carriers.
T-Mobile has grown a ton, by no means some third rate carrier as you make it seem. Tons of low band spectrum and with the 700 MHz rollout coverage has improved significantly over the past 5 years. It’s not going to foster more competition by reducing to three carriers. TMO for one is slowly raising rates already as expected by their growth. They got the greatest share of the 600 MHz band as well in auction, if anything they’re pretty competitive with the other two top ones in most places.Right now I pay $130 after taxes for 4 lines and international calling (Global, not just Mexico and Canada) (all lines) as part of my grandfathered T-Mobile Simple Choice plan from 2014. LTE to 4GB then 2G for unlimited on all lines. They’ve gotten really far in terms of coverage and speeds since then so they have upped the pricing of plans for newcomers.